UNISON Ulearn Northern Ireland

I went to the residential weekend for domestic service workers. I wasn’t sure what it was about to be honest, I went just to broaden my knowledge about the organisation and the issues. As well as working in the school, I’m a part time fire officer and I was interested in seeing if I could relate the domestic services to other things I do.

It was great to meet other people in the same area of work and hear about the different types of issues people are dealing with. Some people have similar problems, but others seem to have to deal with worse conditions than in my school. It’s given me a wider perspective on how things work in other Board areas.

The learning style at the residential has been great, it’s been working in small groups, having discussions. I enjoy learning and have done a number of courses myself but this was really enjoyable. With most other courses, it’s quite a formal environment and then everyone just goes home at the end of the day. But here because it’s overnight, it means that there’s time to actually get to talk to people and share information

I’ve done health and safety training through the fire service and I’d be interested in doing health and safety training through the union. Eventually I’d like to get more training and perhaps move into more of a management style role.