In the run-up to the 10th unionlearn annual conference, we are catching up with some of the people who have won the TUC’s ULR of the Year award in the past decade. Sarah Barnes won in 2013.

Then: Union Learning Rep, Action Housing
Now: Project Worker, GMB Productive Learning Project

I started volunteering with Action Housing because I had been a service user myself while suffering with post-natal depression after my daughter was born in 2006. I volunteered as an assistant service user trainer, which is how I got involved in the education side. 

I was 34 when I went back to college to do an access course, did my English and maths, and then I enrolled on a Certificate in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector (CTTLS) and then moved on to a Cert. Ed. at Sheffield Hallam University. When I went back to college, I thought, ‘I’ve got a bit of a brain here’ and I really enjoyed using it: I discovered a thirst for learning that has changed my life completely.

I got a full-time job with Action Housing as client education and engagement officer in 2011, writing and delivering courses on confidence-building, communications, assertiveness skills, cooking on a budget, arts and crafts – anything the clients wanted to do. I became a ULR in 2012, when I overheard my manager asking a colleague if they would like to be a ULR. Although I’d had no involvement of any sort with unions, I said, ‘I’d really like to do that.’ My manager  said I’d have to be a member so as we were talking I signed up online and said, ‘Right, I’m a GMB member, now can I be a ULR?’

Because of all the funding cuts at the time, it was an ideal time for me to step in as a ULR and give advice and guidance to my colleagues on all the different projects. What I’m most proud of was being able to support 28 members of staff onto the Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS) course and gain a Level 4 qualification which was brilliant. People also went on Level 2 distance learning courses: mental health was a really popular subject and it wasn’t only members of staff, there were clients doing the courses as well – people recovering from drug or alcohol issues who would probably be too intimidated to go to a college did the course through the union with my support.

I got to know the GMB learning project team when I went to the branch activists weekend in 2014. My project worker at the time was Tom Henthorne, who was absolutely amazing, and he encouraged me to apply to work on the project. I ended up working with Tom for the first year and he was my mentor, it made such a difference working with him, he was a brilliant project worker. Action Housing let me have a year secondment, but after that they said, ‘We’d love to have you back, but we can’t hold the position open for you any more.’ I loved the job I was doing so I took the risk, jumped ship and now I’m on my third year with the GMB.

I love this job because it's so varied. I support ULRs in all sorts of places. I respond to individual members’ learning enquiries. And I do one-to-one and group redundancy support. I went into a care home recently where 15 members were being made redundant because it was being closed down. We did a one-day workshop about confidence-building, transferable skills, CV writing and I was embedding literacy and IT as well. By the end, some people who had worked there for 20 years thinking that’s all they could do had a CV with a really good statement of all their skills. The feedback from them was that it was terrible they were losing their jobs but having something on paper that they didn’t have before gave them better prospects of getting employment in the future. When I have I signposted people being made redundant to a course or helped them on a one-to-one basis and they come back and tell me they have got employment again, that’s what I most enjoy.

The lesson I learned as a ULR is that it’s never too late for anybody to engage in learning. I left school with no qualifications and then by doing courses through my union and being encouraged by other people, I ended up going to university to get a degree-level qualification. That inspires me to say to other people, ‘If I can do it, you can too – you might not to go to university, but you can do something that will build your confidence in your ability.’ I used to be in soul-destroying, low-paid jobs that weren’t making a difference in anybody’s lives, but now I have a job I absolutely love, that is decently paid and that helps me make a difference.