TAKING A LEARNING JOURNEY ONE STEP FURTHER

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2013 :: RMTnews 25 R MT member Annette Furlong, an assistant service manager for Virgin based at Liverpool Lime Street, decided to take her own personal learning journey one step further. She travelled to Siemreap, Cambodia in April to teach in an NGO (non-government organisation) school for local children to help develop their English grammar skills. Annette, an active branch member for 16 years decided to become a Union Learning Representative about two years ago as she came from an academic background and felt that supporting members into learning would give them better opportunities in both their work and personal lives. As a ULR and working together with her colleague RMT ULR Sarah Wilson and RMT development worker John Dougherty, Annette had earlier begun the process of mapping out her workplace and speaking with members to find out what it was they actually wanted to learn. After hosting a successful open day with a number of local language and college providers in attendance, they decided to begin with a Spanish language course as a lot of members were keen to take this up. Annette realised that ‘soft skills courses’, such as languages, are often a great springboard to help people to re-engage with lifelong learning. Annette said that it was evident that members had the desire to learn, but often there were many barriers for adult workers to get back into that environment. “We felt this was just one way of removing some of those barriers,” she said. As Annette helped other RMT members to start their learning journeys, she realised that working on her own personal development was the best way to represent the membership. The chance to go overseas stemmed back to her own time at university, where she became aware of NGO teaching programmes. So after contacting them she was offered the chance to go to Cambodia. Annette taught English grammar to grade 5 pupils ranging in ages from 12 to 18. “I was very much thrown in at the deep end as there isn’t really a curriculum to follow, so thank God for the British Council website which helped me a lot,” she explained. The challenges she faced included the lack of resources for example available printing, internet access etc. “I spent loads of time writing out crosswords and word searches for each person manually as there are no photocopying facilities. “Towards the end of each lesson they loved playing games like Hangman. “The majority of US or Australian volunteers tended to teach English grammar differently, which wasn’t necessarily wrong, but had the potential to confuse the kids. “I had to get used to the cultural dos and don’ts, the heat, and that most people lived off the land. “Saying that they were the happiest and most respectful young people I have ever met, very eager to learn and an inspiration to be around. “I also learned a lot about myself and I can now think quickly on my feet when faced with a classroom full of Asian teenagers. “I feel quite brave considering I went on my own into the unknown and I realised I had a lot more inner strength than I believed and I can honestly say it was one of the best things I have ever done in my life,” she said. TAKING A LEARNING JOURNEY ONE STEP FURTHER RMT Midlands Learning Development Worker John Dougherty explains how a learning rep travelled to the Far East to teach English