Training

Kenny lives in Salford and recently attended the Skills to Foster training. Here he writes about his and his partner's experience.

"Going to any kind of meeting where you don’t know anybody is daunting. There is the fear of being met by a sea of unknown faces, not really knowing what to expect and of course - the dreaded ice-breaker!!  

"These fears are quickly put aside when you take those first initial steps into the training room. After a very warm welcome from our three tutors, my partner and I were offered refreshments and asked to take a seat. The room was set out in a circle with the tutors at the front. There were around 16 people on our stretch of training and as we quickly got to find out we were from all sorts of backgrounds; single people, single mums, newly married couples, same-sex couples, couples who had been married for years with their own children, all of different races and ages which was brilliant as this made for a very interesting seven weeks. Every person had their own stories and life experiences to share and reasons for filling in the forms that led us to this room.  

"The training is well paced and the activities (although the revelations from them are at times shocking, and can be upsetting to some), are very current and to the point as well as thought provoking and motivating. Don’t worry; you will not be made to take part in role plays or put in embarrassing situations, and if you are not comfortable with anything going on you can simply sit and soak it all in. 

"Each session lasts around two hours and they are packed full of information which is presented in a number of different ways - this was good as we all know sitting listening to someone talk for two hours can simply put you to sleep (especially at 6.30pm) but I can honestly say that the time flew by. The tutors have a wealth of knowledge and experience and on certain sessions we were introduced to some active foster carers from different types of fostering and to three amazing young people who had been and in some cases are still in the foster care system but were very open and honest about their experiences and happy to let us know the type of things we should be doing - I have to say I think this was my favourite session.  

"My partner and I really enjoyed our Skills to Foster training and are now friends with most of the people in our group - we stay in contact and see where each of us is up to in our assessment and I know that when the time comes for us to accept a young person into our homes that we already have a firm network of ‘buddies’ to help out or to simply talk to if ever the need arose.  

"I would urge anyone with an interest in foster care of any kind to get in touch and at least try it out - the training isn’t a binding contract and you decide at the end of it if you still think fostering is something you would like to do. What have you got to lose?"

This page was last updated on 5 January 2012