Learning to excel

Growing up in Armagh during The Troubles was not a time for lofty ambitions. You left school, you got a job. And that’s how it was for Lucia McKeever. But then, with encouragement from her trade union, her horizons started to widen considerably. Lucia rose through the ranks of first COHSE, then UNISON, before serving as UNISON president from 2014 to 2015 – the first Northern Irish member to hold that office. Now, as she prepares to step down from the union’s National Executive Council (NEC), she wants to encourage others to take the same journey. “I left school at 16. I hadn’t even a spirit level, never mind an O level,” she says, amazed at how far she’s come. It was May 1978 when she started work in the local hospital as a nursing assistant, not having the qualifications to train as a nurse. She joined COHSE, one of UNISON’s predecessor unions and became a mailing steward, helping to put up posters, but not representing members. Then her friend and branch secretary, the late Cindy Fogerty, talked her into signing up for a weekend event for stewards. “It was for a course, Women Work in Society. When we got there I was nearly physically sick at the thought of trying to study.” In fact, by that time, married with four children, Lucia recalls hearing her kids say to one another, “Don’t ask Mummy about that – she can’t spell!” What she didn’t realise was that she was dyslexic. One of the tutors persuaded her to stay for that formative weekend. And ...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Magazine activists' learning learning and organising lifelong learning return to learn Source Type: news