Sharon Barr

Classroom Assistant, Foyleview Special School

It was a small group with a lot of one to one support

I heard about the Essential Skills through IT course from UNISON and even though I’m not interested in computers, I needed to learn them for work. I was wary about doing it because I’ve no real interest in computers, I didn’t know much about them.

But once I started, I really enjoyed getting out to meet people and I liked that the course was basic. Even learning to switch on and off the computer without having to plug it out. The tutor asked us what we wanted to know, what would be useful for our work. So I learned about how to do banners for school. The course also covered English, which was very good, things like punctuation, how to structure a letter, and we looked at spelling. I was comfortable with all that because I liked English in school, but some people were wary. But the tutor went around everyone and went at a slow pace, it was a small group with a lot of one to one support.

Because it ran up to the Summer, we didn’t get to complete the course, so I’d like to finish it. The course gave me a lot of confidence and now I’m interested in doing some other courses which will help my personal development. I’d like to see UNISON offer more courses at night, because it’s too difficult to get release from work during the day.