I've been involved with adult learning and skills all my working life. I worked for many years in a university on library and information work. I also volunteered supporting English and Maths classes as a local adult education centre and with an advocacy charity for those with learning disabilities.

I got involved with union learning early in 2002 when I trained as a UNISON union learning rep (ULR) following a bit of persuasion from my Branch. I set about helping university domestic staff get some personal development from the Workers' Education Association.

From there, I was seconded to what was TUC Learning Services. In those days, there was a lot of support going into securing skills for life and first level 2 qualifications for workers! I later worked on our local Aimhigher-funded projects, which were about showing union ULRs how to steer colleagues through routes into higher education (HE). As a former HE worker and a classic widening participation student myself, it was something I thought we needed to do.

After that, I took voluntary redundancy from my substantive post and spent a year doing my Postgraduate Certificate in Education and a Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages certificate – teaching Access, Foundation Degree courses in colleges and ESOL in workplaces. I have Unite to thank for the opportunity to do the latter.

I had spent a bit of time working with their union learning fund (ULF) project before I left and ended up going back to join them fulltime when I finished my teaching courses. In 2009, the chance to work for unionlearn on a project in the North West around supporting older workers came up. I've been here as a Project Worker/Union Support Officer ever since.

So why this new role? Well, for one thing, unionlearn was changing and I couldn't stay where I was. Moreover though, I'd seen a comment from Tom Wilson on our website in the New Year – "Union learning is a major success story. This year, we will use every opportunity to shout about it." This intrigued me.

A few days later, our proposed new structure came out and it became a bit clearer what was meant by that and how it might happen, with the introduction of these new posts. I had a think about it, spoke to a couple of colleagues and applied. And here I am!

As I am covering our North West and Northern regions, I expect particularly to engage with ULF projects (national or regional) with specific unionlearn support based in these regions, such as URTU, FBU, Aegis, UNISON, GMB, PFA, POA and UCATT. However, through past working relationships with most affiliates and the ongoing work that regions will continue to do with them, I am sure that won't be the end of the list!

All the projects have their own particular aims and objectives. I am optimistic that demonstrating that diversity will be both interesting and rewarding. I have also been given the remit to report on how unions are engaging with the older workers' agenda, in particular through our Supporting Mid-life Development resources and the Climbing Frame.

Some good evidence is already starting to come in about how this work continues to grow, to reach new audiences and meet new challenges in a very diverse range of sectors and occupations. It will be good to see this disseminated and ultimately its impact demonstrated for all to see.