UNISON Ulearn Northern Ireland

I have worked as a Community Care worker in the Bangor area for around 20 years, though we were called home helps when I first started. The work I do is mainly providing personal care and meals to elderly and disabled people in their own homes. I left school after O’Levels and went and did a comptometer course, which were the forerunners of today’s computers. Then I worked in NIE. But once I got married and had children I stayed at home until they reached secondary school age.

I opted for a home help job because the hours were very flexible and you didn’t really need qualifications. Even though I’ve been in the union since I started, it was only in 2000 that I did my first course. Up to then I’d really only heard about learning if you wanted to be a shop steward and that wasn’t my thing. Paul Donaghy came down and spoke to us at a union meeting about a course called Return to Learn. It sounded interesting and I went along to the information session. I was very apprehensive because I’d been out of the education system for such a long time, so I decided I’d go to the first session and see what I thought of it. I went along with fear and trepidation, I really didn’t know what to expect.

I liked the informal atmosphere and the fact that you worked at your own pace, there were three levels and it was between you and the tutor what level you worked at. There were people in the group who struggled with some bits of it, but we all helped each other, there was no competition and we didn’t feel intimidated. The tutor gave us lots of support and we could get feedback on assignments and rewrite them. We also had tasks to do such as go and interview someone about an issue – it was a real challenge, but it was something I did for myself. We went to a formal ceremony in Jordanstown where we got our certificates, we were really fussed over and it was very good.

Not long after that, I head about an Open University course the K100. This was the first time this course was run through the union. It was quite different to Return to Learn because we weren’t as spoon fed, we were expected to do a lot of work in our own time. The tutor was supportive, but we submitted an assignment and it was marked and that was it. We learned from the feedback from each assignment and they did get easier, but we weren’t able to rewrite them. The best thing was the content, we looked at the history of the NHS, at different cultural and diversity issues within healthcare, systems in days gone by, such as institutions and workhouses, and issues such as abuse in the care system. It was a tough course, but I had a lot of support from my family, also we formed our own study group and met in each other’s houses. This course also had an exam, unlike the Return to Learn. I had a lot of family stuff going on and didn’t get to study as much as I would have liked. But we only had to do 3 questions out of 9, so we had a lot of choice.

A few years later I was encouraged by the Regional Education Officer to do the Lay Tutors course because I had done the other two courses and I was keen to promote the opportunities around learning in my workplace. This course gave me the confidence and tools. At the beginning I sat there like a mouse, but by the end I had no trouble speaking up. It was good to meet people from other workplaces. We had a really good branch education group at that time, though that’s not been active recently. I’d like to get back involved in education in my branch, so I can use my skills and promote learning more effectively.