UNISON Ulearn Northern Ireland

I’m not working at the moment because of ill health, but I found out about the classes through the Derry Education UNISON branch. My first classes were in Derry Women’s Centre, and I went to improve my reading and writing. I have severe dyslexia but in school it was never recognised, they told me I was stupid and lazy. No-one took me seriously and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t learn.

I went to some of the UNISON courses but once I had to write something down I wasn’t able to take part. It was Anne Donnelly who told me about the Essential Skills through IT classes which UNISON was running with the North West Institute. They sounded interesting, and I thought they might help me with my language, and I wanted to learn a bit about computers.

I was quite nervous about going to the Institute, I thought the classes would be very big, I didn’t know what to expect, I was concerned that with my dyslexia I wouldn’t fit in, I wondered if I was too old. But I needn’t have worried, the classes were small and there was a lot of one to one support. Our tutor Gerry Harkin was really supportive, but also very honest, he told me that I had 30 years of learning to catch up on and it would take a lot of work, but it wouldn’t be impossible. In the class, we’d take a break and have a cup of tea, and have a discussion about current affairs or what was going on locally. He told me that I had good verbal communication skills, and certainly friends would say that I’m a good talker. The challenge was to put it in writing.

My greatest achievement was to write my first letter at the age of 46. I’ve always had to get someone to write letters for me, but Gerry made it part of my homework to write a letter every week about my thoughts on different issues.

I passed the course at the basic stage and I’ll be getting my certificate. I plan to continue and do the next stage of the essential skills. I’ve always been interested in history, I’ve always been good at telling people about local history, but I’ve never been able to read about it, my goal is to read a history book.

My main advice to anyone who’s nervous about going to a class, is never let fear stop you learning. If I can sit down and write my first letter at 46 years of age, then it’s worth giving it a go. I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved so far.