The Learning Rep magazine - Summer 2011

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the

learningrep Âť Summer 2011

unionlearn conference special report

Lemn Sissay striking a light for learning www.unionlearn.org.uk

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» Comment

Meeting the challenge

Tom Wilson Director, unionlearn The Learning Rep summer 2011 Editor: James Asser jasser@tuc.org.uk Writers: Astrid Stubbs, Martin Moriarty Cover photo: Lemn Sissay by Rod Leon Design: wave.coop Print: Ancient House Printing Group Distribution: Cavalier mailing

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19 28 Contents: 3 8 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 25 26 30 31 32

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News Conference ULR Profile Green skills Lemn Sissay Adult Learners’ Week Learning centre Community learning Wolf Report Guardian round table TUC Education round-up Contacts Jay knows Resources

Photo © Rod Leon

June saw the annual unionlearn conference, when almost 450 delegates packed into Congress House in London to hear a range of high-profile speakers, to celebrate the achievements of the past year and to discuss issues as diverse as the digital economy, green skills, apprenticeships, numeracy and dyslexia.

It has been a challenging year for both unions and businesses: the financial climate has been very tough and pressure on budgets means that time and resources for learning has been difficult. Unionlearn has also been working with employers and staff facing redundancy to ensure they have the skills and opportunities to get back into the workplace.

There have also been positive developments in the last few months, including securing the future of unionlearn funding, confirmed for the next year with a commitment to carry on our work until 2014. Unionlearn has had to undergo restructuring and a detailed look at our work, but we are in a position to continue to deliver high-quality learning and skills to more than 200,000 people a year.

The message from the speakers was clear – that learning must be a key part in ensuring that the UK has the necessary skills to secure a strong economic recovery and guarantee that British businesses remained competitive.

Investing in our workforce and their skills is not an option, it is a necessity – from basic skills through to delivering the skills to meet the digital revolution.

There’s a big challenge ahead, but lots of opportunities too, and it was clear from the delegates that union learning reps are up for the task, keen to work with employers and workers to deliver those skills and meet the challenge.

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News « ASDA’s distribution depot in Erith, Kent, has become the first to sign a learning agreement with the GMB, and now more than 60 full-time colleagues and agency workers at the site have signed up for Skills for Life courses.

That ASDA be good news!

Since reaching the agreement in April, the GMB has trained three union learning reps to spread the word about learning opportunities at the depot, while Liliya has also run a series of open days to promote the scheme.

Erith & Thamesmead MP Teresa Pearce visited the distribution centre to see the learning initiative in action this summer.

Photo © Rod Leon

“The management and people team at Erith is very happy to encourage colleagues to develop their skills through the union,” says GMB Regional Project Organiser Liliya Brabbs, who has been steering the learning initiative.

“The atmosphere is fantastic – they have welcomed our approach and have let us talk to everyone on the site about learning.”

GMB Regional Project Organiser Liliya Brabbs and GMB Organiser Brandon Kemp (right) mark the new learning agreement with ASDA Distribution Erith Site General Manager Stephen Reid

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» News

Unions should make sure canteens always offer healthy options

Much more needs to be done to promote health and wellbeing at the workplace, the National Director for Health and Work Dame Carol Black told a unionlearn SERTUC event in March.

“Too often health and work are not acknowledged as related and interdependent: the workplace potential for prevention and promotion goes largely unrecognised,” she argued.

“There is a business case: money spent on improving the work environment will soon be recouped if it prevents sick leave and staff turnover.”

Unionlearn Director Tom Wilson said that it made sense that unions looked at problems such as stress, general health and well-being.

“We should be promoting antismoking initiatives; reps should be checking that the

canteen is putting on healthy food for the staff; and we should be persuading employers to introduce preventive health measures, for example screening for breast and testicular cancer,” he said.

RMT Learning Organiser Sharon Allen said the union had run successful health awareness events during Adult Learners’ Week.

“Men are very bad at going to the doctor, but they are more likely to get involved in screening or preventative programmes if their mates at work are taking part,” Sharon pointed out.

Half of senior managers surveyed in 2008 believed none of their workers would ever suffer from a mental health problem during their working life, whereas one in six people in the UK experience depression and problems related to stress.

“There is still a stigma attached to mental health and it’s clearly a trade union issue that this prejudice should be challenged,” said unionlearn Regional Manager Barry Francis.

Durham celebrates learning together Union learning reps and unions joined Durham County Council and the Northern TUC to celebrate the success of their partnership workplace learning project Learning Together at a special event in Durham County Hall in May. The partnership enables UNISON, GMB, Unite, UCATT and NUT, the employer and eight learning providers to offer a full range of formal and informal learning for members, staff and local communities across the huge geographical area of the unitary authority.

Over the years, the 54-strong ULR team has encouraged nearly 1,000 people into a wide variety of learning, from literacy and numeracy to health and well-being and NVQs at Levels 2 and 3.

“The Learning Together project is yet another example of how union–employer partnerships at work to create a holistic learning culture in the workplace,” commented Northern TUC Regional Secretary Kevin Rowan.

“The project’s joint coordinators over the last couple of years, Stephen Banks (GMB) and Kathy Grylls (UNISON), have worked tirelessly to deliver on ambitious targets and make learning an integral part of life at Durham County Council.”

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The Learning Together project at Durham County Council has helped hundreds of staff access learning opportunities

Photo: Roy Peters/reportdigital.co.uk

Health and well-being is a union issue

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News «

‘Tireless’ project worker gets his reward GMB Southern Region Project Worker Ian Northam was awarded an MBE this summer for services to workplace education.

A key figure in the union’s learning team since 2007, 59-yearold Ian was central to the successful development of the state-of-the-art learning centre at Babcock Marine, Appledore, working with management, unions and providers to raise funding for a wide range of training courses.

“Ian is incredibly committed to his work and his colleagues: he’s the kind of person who always takes that extra step for other people and he’s an excellent project worker,” commented unionlearn South West’s Skills For The Future Fund Project Manager Maggie Fellows.

“This is a guy who really knows how to rise to tough situations and make things happen: his energy, enthusiasm and commitment remain, even when times are really challenging.”

Ian himself admitted he didn’t immediately understand the official letter about his award. “I was staggered when I received the letter about the MBE – I had to read it twice,” he said.

“I’m over the moon to receive this award, but I see it as recognition for the entire team and the Union Learning Fund project.”

GMB Regional Secretary Richard Ascough was delighted to hear the news.

“This is thoroughly deserved – Ian has worked tirelessly,” he said.

FDA opens HMRC centre The First Division Association is opening a new learning centre at the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) office on Kingsway in central London – the first time the senior public servants’ union has led on such a project.

The FDA has kitted out the learning centre with the help of the Union Learning Fund (HMRC has also provided training materials and equipment), and management has agreed staff should have time to train and access their learning reps.

The centre is being established in a section of the library in the building, and will be open during working hours for staff to: z undertake Skills for Life and informal adult learning z access online learning to improve IT skills and close skills gaps z attend sessions run by FDA and PCS learning reps.

The new learning centre will also function to support work-based learning to improve business performance, deliver management–union co-investment in skills, and develop the role and impact of learning reps.

Photo: Philip Wolmuth/reportdigital.co.uk

Getting through tough times The Government, employers and providers must take action to ensure everyone can take up opportunities to learn, NIACE argued, after its sobering annual survey of adult learning.

While provision for young adults (aged 17–24) is increasing, men, older people and the least skilled are finding it harder to access opportunities, according to the report, Tough Times For Adult Learners. z The number of adults who have taken part in learning over the last three years has fallen from 43 per cent in 2010 to 39 per cent. z The number of men who have learned over the past three years (37 per cent) is now at its lowest level since the NIACE annual survey began in 1996.

z Just 23 per cent of the least skilled and those outside the labour market are participating in learning – a fall of seven percentage points from 2010 and the lowest reported total in 20 years.

“Overall, the most concerning aspects of this year’s survey are the lowest ever figures of participation for men and for the least skilled and those outside the labour market,” argued NIACE Chief Executive Alan Tuckett.

“When you take these findings with the reported decline in people's intentions to take up learning in the future, you have a fundamental challenge for policy makers, employers and providers – we won’t have a learning society unless everyone takes their share of responsibility to create it.”

Men are finding it harder to access learning opportunities

>> Purchase from shop.niace.org.uk/ tough-times-for-adult-learners.html

>> ALW: pp18–19 summer 2011 « 5

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Photo: Clint Randall

» News More than 100 learners at Babcock International’s shipyard in Appledore, Devon, enjoyed a celebration of their achievements at a special event at Bideford Football Ground that included an awards presentation, buffet and disco.

They were joined by representatives from the company, unionlearn, Unite, the GMB and learning provider Petroc (formed after the merger of North Devon College and East Devon College in 2008).

A Skills and Training Steering Group, with representatives from Babcock senior management, workplace unions, ULRs, unionlearn and Petroc, was created to launch the learning programme in 2008.

The steering group oversaw the creation of the on-site Babcock and Trade Unions Skills Centre at Appledore, which opened in 2010 with the help of funding from the Department of Business and Skills and unionlearn’s Skills For The Future programme.

Since then, workers have used the state-of-the-art facilities to study Skills for Life, ITQs, NVQs, team leadership and apprenticeships.

“The work at Appledore illustrates just how well a partnership approach can work for a business and its

Shipshape and Babcock fashion Babcock shipyard workers have enthusiastically grasped the opportunity to learn

workforce when developing skills and confidence,” says unionlearn’s Skills For The Future Fund Project Manager Maggie Fellows.

“The employer, unions, learning reps, educational providers and business support agencies have all played their part, but leading the way has been the workforce at Babcock International who have grasped this opportunity with great enthusiasm and commitment – I think there is no stopping them now.”

n GMB members from Babcock beat their Unite counterparts from J&S Marine 5–4 at a special football match at Appledore FC’s Sandymere training ground in Northam, North Devon, during Adult Learners’ Week this year.

DWP learners celebrate diplomas A dozen Newcastle pensions staff celebrated gaining their Level 5 diplomas from the Chartered Management Institute with an event at the Department for Work and Pensions office at Tyneview Park in May. Eleven of them have now continued their learning journey by moving on to the second year of a Foundation degree, managed by learning provider Amacus and delivered by its project partner Gateshead College.

Representatives from unionlearn, the Public and Commercial Services Union, DWP management and Amacus all joined the successful learners at the celebration in May. “Enormous credit has to go to the

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individuals who have undertaken this – and more – on top of their daily responsibilities at work and home with unwavering commitment and produced some absolutely excellent achievements to boot,” said London Pensions Centre Manager Derek Wood, who presented the learners with their framed diplomas.

PCS Union Learning Rep Paul Richardson said the general consensus was that the course had been rated a “roaring success” by learners and partners alike.

The initiative had succeeded through effective joint working, said Amacus Managing Director Christine Murray, who helped put the tailored learning package together with unionlearn Higher Level Skills

Project Worker Julie Robinson.

“The partnership approach between the provider, union, employer and learners has been critical to the overall success of this programme,” she said.

DWP learners proudly display their Chartered Management Institute diplomas

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News «

Photo: Graham Fotherby

Leeds council blazes learning trail Leeds City Councillor Keith Wakefield signs the learning agreement between the authority, its unions and unionlearn Yorkshire and the Humber

Leeds City Council has signed a learning agreement with its trade unions and unionlearn to develop the skills of the 30,000 people who work at the West Yorkshire local authority and the wider community.

City Council Leader Cllr Keith Wakefield and Chief Executive Tom Riordan put their names to the agreement, as did unionlearn Director Tom Wilson and representatives from the GMB, UCATT, UNISON and Unite to mark Learning At Work Day in May. Unionlearn Regional Manager Dr Alan Roe forecast the agreement would help people change their lives through learning.

“A great deal of hard work by the council, many individuals and ULRs in the region has culminated in access to sustainable learning opportunities for over 30,000 employees of Leeds City Council,” he said.

Cllr Wakefield said the agreement reaffirmed the council’s commitment to learning in Leeds and helping people into jobs.

“The sheer scale of the financial situation we are currently facing means council employees are experiencing huge changes – this means it’s vitally important that we work closely with the unions to ensure our staff are prepared to meet the challenge of these changes,” he said.

Both sides aim to build a learning culture within the council workforce and in the wider community throughout the city by making learning and development available in different forms.

The learning agreement provides for access to on-the-job learning, mentoring and coaching, e-learning, learning at trade union learning centres, and an annual ‘learning offer’ will be produced outlining the combined opportunities available from the council and the unions.

Tom Wilson said the agreement reflected the positive partnership between the authority and the unions.

“Leeds City Council is blazing a trail in the region by making a commitment to improving the skills of its employees,” he said.

Hands up!

Who wants to help at WorldSkills?

WorldSkills London 2011 is looking for around 2,500 volunteers to help with the organisation and running of the event in London’s Docklands in October.

Volunteers will help the four days go smoothly by greeting competitors at the airport, escorting special guests around the ExCeL London exhibition and conference centre and working in the media centre.

Although some volunteers will need to have special skills (e.g. languages or technology), most positions will simply require hard work and a high standard of customer service.

Volunteers will be provided with an official uniform, food and drink while on duty, a Travelcard, and an official certificate detailing their contribution to the world’s biggest and best skills competition.

Get your money’s worth The Money Advice Service is a new nationwide service providing free, unbiased advice online, over the phone and face-to-face to help everyone make the most of their money.

Set up by the Government and paid for by a statutory levy on the financial services industry, the new, free, independent service aims to help the millions of people who need practical money advice, whatever their financial circumstances.

“I firmly believe we can all enjoy life more given the right money advice at the right time in the right way,” says Chairman Gerard Lemos.

“We’re not here to sell people anything and we won’t charge anyone – we are here to help people take decisions about their money and plan for a better future for themselves and their families.”

The Money Advice Service website now offers an online health check, which will provide a personal action plan to help people identify their money priorities and make a plan for their financial future.

Like its predecessor, the Consumer Financial Education Body, the new service is also delivering advice in the workplace, including a free one-hour seminar and confidential individual follow-up appointments.

>> To book a local face-toVolunteers should be over 16, live within daily travelling distance of London and be committed team players with a positive attitude and a desire to have fun.

>> To find out more, visit:

www.worldskillslondon20 11.com/get-involved/ volunteer

>> If you’d like to register

face advice session, call: 0333 321 3434 (England); 0808 800 0118 (Scotland); 0300 330 0520 (Wales); 0333 321 2424 (Northern Ireland).

>> For more information, visit www.moneyadvice service.org.uk

>> For telephone advice, call 0300 500 5000.

for complimentary tickets to the event, visit: www.worldskillslondon 2011.com/visit

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» Briefing » Annual conference

Unions got talent!

All photographs: Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk

We’ll only escape from our economic problems by investing in the skills of the workforce, Brendan Barber told the 400 participants at this year’s unionlearn conference.

We must invest to develop the talents of the workforce if Britain is to successfully emerge from the its current economic problems, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber told this year’s unionlearn conference, Making Learning Click.

“If Britain is to get through this period of turbulence, if workers are to see their living standards rising again, then we need to invest in the talents of all,” he told the 400 participants at the event, which he dubbed “the trade union movement’s answer to Britain’s Got Talent”.

While the TUC had its disagreements with the Government, skills was one area where the two organisations could work together. “The coalition is having a serious dialogue with us about workplace learning and we welcome that,” he said.

The government’s focus on apprenticeships, support for union-led learning and its continued funding for unionlearn represented “a strong vote of confidence in what we do” and showed there was a cross-party consensus about the value of union learning, he said.

Encouraging more employers to develop their workers was one of the key priorities for the year ahead, he said.

“I want our work on skills to drive the modernisation of our movement, redefining what trade unionism is and what we can offer to working people in the 21st century.”

Trade unions were already working with organisations of all kinds to raise workforce skills – such as rail manufacturer Bombardier Transportation, high street firm Primark and bakery company Warburton’s.

But it needed to hold to account those firms that shirk their training responsibilities – a massive 10 million workers were not offered any training by their employer in the 12-month period covered by the 2009 National Employer Skills Survey.

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“Rather than being a cheerleader for higher skills, I want unionlearn to be a champion – challenging Britain’s businesses to raise their game,” Brendan said.

While employers were providing hundreds more apprenticeship places than they would have without unionlearn support and encouragement, it was vital that every scheme offered genuine opportunities for young people – which meant breaking down the gender divide and ensuring proper progression routes from Level 2 to Level 3 schemes.

The second priority was putting learning at the heart of trade union renewal.

“I don’t just want us to be there for people when things go wrong or when workers need help, crucial though that is: I want us to help people get on, to earn more, to win that promotion – or to learn something new just for the hell of it,” he said.

“I want our work on skills to drive the modernisation of our movement, redefining what trade unionism is and what we can offer to working people in the 21st century.”

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Annual conference « Briefing «

We’re Martha’s favourite partner!

Race Online 2012 frontperson Martha Lane Fox revealed that her favourite partner organisation was unionlearn, in a keynote interview with journalist Robin Ross at the conference.

Race Online 2012 aimed to get everyone in the UK hooked up to the internet with the help of the strength, resources and know-how of all its partner organisations, she said.

“The numbers are heading in the right direction, but slowly,” she revealed.

“The one thing that makes me lie awake at night is that we’re not helping more people quickly enough – but we’re trying!”

Race Online 2012 had adopted a three-pronged strategy for tackling the problem, she said: z building an army of digital champions to pass on their

The year in figures 220,000 20,000 learners supported

people helped to access Skills for Life

2,000 100 97

new learning reps trained new learning centres opened

formal learning agreements signed with employers

“Unionlearn is my favourite partner for committing to lots of digital champions and supporting its own people with skills.”

internet skills to members of hardto-reach groups z offering cheap, broadbandenabled computers for under £100 through deals with Microsoft and Remploy z running area-based initiatives where all its partner organisations would focus on getting everyone online in one particular town or city at a time.

“Unionlearn’s pledge to help get more and more digital champions is fantastic, because you guys really all know the people and how to reach them,” she said.

Before she took on the Digital Champion role, she had been only vaguely aware of unionlearn, she

The more you train your staff, the better your organisation will become, argued Martha Lane Fox

revealed. “I didn’t know quite the extent of the great work unionlearn does – and obviously it’s my favourite partner now not only for committing to lots of digital champions but also for supporting its own people with skills,” she said.

She said she “completely agreed” with Brendan Barber about the need to convince employers on learning.

“You have a responsibility to train your workforce, and everybody who’s running a business like me, or who’s started a business as I have, knows that the more trained your staff are, the better your organisation will be – it doesn’t matter whether you’re a cleaner or a non-executive director, it’s true across the board,” she said.

Tom bows out Unite ULR Tom O’Callaghan, who has helped hundreds of colleagues at London’s Metroline bus company improve their personal and professional lives through workplace learning, collected a special award to mark his retirement.

Invited to make a speech about his contribution to lifelong learning by unionlearn Board chair Dr Mary Bousted, Tom would only say: “That was the best ten-bob bet I ever put on in my life!”

Tom’s wife Noreen offers her own congratulations

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» Briefing » Annual conference

Strike a light, Lemn!

Lemn Sissay illuminated labour history with a performance of Spark Catchers, the poem he was commissioned to write for the London 2012 Olympics.

Poet, playwright and broadcaster Lemn Sissay set the conference alight with a sparkling performance of his poem Spark Catchers, which celebrates the 1888 strike at the Bryant and May factory close to the site of what is now the London Olympic Park.

“Spark catching, practised at night beneath stars in the silver sheen of a phosphorous moon, was a secret pastime of the matchmakers: strike!”

Photos: Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk

“I researched the site and I found the Bryant and May factory and found an article in Link, from 1888, where Annie Besant, writing about the striking match girls, said ‘If only there were a poet to speak of the situation these women are in’,” he explained.

“Over 100 years later, I am that poet and that was a call for me to write that poem.”

Spark Catchers, the first 2012 commission to be completed, is destined to be etched into a wooden structure in the north of the Park, one of a series of permanent poems on the site.

Lemn also read Morning Breaks, a poem about learning that he dedicated to anybody who had ever been told that they couldn’t do something or shouldn’t go in a particular direction.

The poem tells the story of someone who falls over the edge of a cliff and grabs hold of a branch to save himself, refusing to let go despite the pain he’s in, despite the voices urging him to let go, despite the storm raging above his head – until he realises that he’s grown magnificent wings, unpeels his fingers from the branch and flies away.

Lemn also read his short comic piece, Immigration RSVP, which satirises the racists who claim that Britain is being ‘overrun’ by immigrants by pointing out that our food, clothing, toys and oil are imported from all over the globe.

Photo: Rod Leon

Earlier, before the conference proper got underway, Lemn helped launch the fifth edition of the TUC Education workbook Tackling Racism. “It’s an honour to launch this very important document,” he said.

>> We all need a

helping hand: pp16–17

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Annual conference « Briefing « Photo: Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk

Now’s the time to pick up the pace on skills We need to speed up skills development in this country if we’re to keep up with our international competitors, argued Charlie Mayfield, chair of the UK Commission on Employment and Skills (UKCES) and the John Lewis Partnership.

“Skills are absolutely aligned with growth and with economic prosperity but we’re not necessarily going in the right direction on this and we need to make a number of changes,” he argued.

Photos: Jess Hurd/reportdigital co uk

“While we have some excellent skilled people within our workforce, we’re not actually developing the skills of our people as fast as we need to maintain our international competitiveness – in particular if you look at our performance against China and India, we’re not developing anything like as quickly.”

Too many employers blamed our skills issues on the education system, instead of taking action to develop the talents of their own workers.

“Eighty per cent of the workforce that will be in work over the next 10 years is already in the workforce, so it’s simply inadequate to say that the solution to the UK skills problem lies in education and schools – it has to rest with employers and their current employees,” he argued.

UKCES had four priorities, he said: z winning the economic argument for investing in skills with employers z enhancing the value and status of vocational education z helping industrial sectors to articulate their skills needs z helping create opportunities for employment for people furthest from the jobs market.

It’s all about the quality

Photo: Rod Leon

Apprenticeships are approaching record levels in this country but the real issue is quality, argued David Way, deputy chief executive of the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS).

Apprenticeships should give employers the edge and help young people get the start they need, argued NAS Deputy Chief Executive David Way

“Apprenticeships will only survive if employers think that they give them the edge and young people believe that they will give them a good start in their working lives,” he said.

NAS had three key aims: z creating a bridge for young people from school into work z ensuring employers invested in skills z producing data to support the case for apprenticeships.

David thanked unionlearn for its continuing support.

“The unionlearn campaign Apprenticeships Are Union Business has helped us raise the issue with unions and employers,” he pointed out.

But it was vital that this all took us forward.

“We’ve got a good diagnosis of the problem, we’ve got four clear priorities and they’re in the right territory, but none of this will come to anything unless it takes us somewhere better,” he argued.

Encouraging everyone to take ownership of the issue was crucial, he said.

“It’s about creating the conditions which encourage employers, employees, unions, all of us, to own this issue and develop solutions that are lasting and don’t just come and go in another bit of short-termism.”

Celebrating the very best Unionlearn Board chair Dr Mary Bousted presented the sought-after unionlearn Quality Award to five projects: z Jigsaw Training z JCB Ltd z Yeovil College z West Cheshire College z McVitie’s learn4U Centre

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» ULR Profile » Gary Britt ULR Gary Britt is helping bus drivers develop themselves – and doing his bit to steer young people in the right direction as well.

If you don’t learn, you’ll get left behind When Unite (the TGWU as it then was) started the lifelong learning initiative at First Bus, I didn’t really get involved because I was already doing courses through the learndirect centre in Leeds city centre.

But when the ULR Dave Pugh was promoted to the region, I applied to become a learning rep at the Bramley Road depot – and from there I did my ULR course (then called Front Line Advice and Guidance) at Bradford College.

Gary helps colleagues develop at First’s two learning centres in Leeds

Our two sites in Leeds (at Bramley depot and Hunslet Road depot) are both open one day a week as drop-in centres, and if people can’t come in, we try and give them the resources to learn at home at their own pace, or signpost them to a college or another learning centre if that’s a better environment for them.

The most popular courses are computing, mainly because a lot of people have kids coming home from school and they haven’t got a clue what their kids are on about; and some people like doing the first aid course because they may have had a scare with their kids and come in and do that course for reassurance.

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We’re trying to bring lifelong learning and the NVQ programme closer together: the union and the company have decided in partnership that ULRs should have dual roles as NVQ Assessors to bridge the gap between the two specialisms – that’s why I did my NVQ Assessor’s qualification recently.

My NVQ Level 3 in learning and support at Leeds City College was my first teaching qualification. After that I kept wanting to add on so we could offer more in the learning centre, so I did my Certificate of Education at the same college, and now I’ve just finished the second year of my BA Honours degree in education and training.

When you start learning as an adult, it’s more relevant to life, whereas at school you don’t always see the relevance of ‘A plus B minus a triangle equals nuclear weapons’! (To this day, even now I’m a qualified teacher, I don’t understand algebra.)

So I can understand when learners come in with the same sort of issue – I’ve been there and I can try and relate it to them in a way they’ll understand.

School wasn’t an environment I particularly enjoyed – and my exam results speak for themselves: on paper I have seven GCSEs, but only one of them is a C, so I didn’t do too well.

That didn’t bother me too much at the time because I’d already been accepted into the Army – I joined literally 15 days after my 16th birthday in 1988.

After a couple of years, I had a fight with a helicopter and lost and was medically discharged, but a year later I found a back door to get back in and stayed until 2000. I left because, after tour after tour of Bosnia and Kosovo and Northern Ireland, I felt it was time to move on and try something different.

When I came out of the Army, I expected there would be a job waiting for me, but that wasn’t the case at all – it was a case of having to fight for everything, and work wasn’t particularly easy to come by until I saw an advert in the paper for a job as a driver for First in 2001.

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Gary Britt « ULR Profile «

Gary picked up an Adult Learners’ Week Award this year in recognition of all the work he’s put in as a ULR

Photos: Mark Harvey

The best thing about being a ULR is that we have the support of the union if any issues come up: working in partnership with the company is a positive thing because when issues come up, they go straight to the education sub-committee, which consists of both First Group and the union, and we all move forward.

The main challenge at the moment is trying to get people into the learning centre with all their other commitments due to workloads: there are people who want to learn and there are people who don’t but they need it to carry on developing.

It’s just a case of trying to get through to people that just because they’ve left school and grown up and may even have grown-up kids doesn’t mean their learning journey has to stop – some of them think the second they left school that’s it, there’s no more learning for them.

I’m a busy man: my partner’s also very busy Monday to Friday so, if she’s out of an evening, rather than sitting in my house on my own, I might as well be out as well doing something and being useful to somebody or developing myself.

That’s why I do 20 hours a month as a Community First Responder with the ambulance service – if there’s a 999 call within three miles of your postcode when you’re on call, you attend before the ambulance and paramedics get there.

In January this year I went back into uniform as a sergeant in the Royal Marine Cadets as training officer for the detachment in Bradford, developing training plans for the cadets: basically, it’s helping young people become responsible members of the community rather than being out on street corners stealing cars.

If I hadn’t found learning, I probably would have got into a rut and just stayed there instead of trying to develop myself and help other people; in today’s environment, if you don’t continue learning, and develop yourself, you’re going to get left behind.

It was nice to be recognised with an award during Adult Learners’ Week: to get recognition from an external body is a big morale boost: it’s nice to know that you’re not beating your head against a stone and that people out there are appreciative of what you do.

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» Feature » Green skills

Green is the colour of Wayne’s world

Photo: Andrew Aitchison/PCS

Wayne Walters, a PCS green rep at HM Prison Guys Marsh, is saving the service thousands of pounds a year with a project to turn food waste into energy.

HMP Guys Marsh, which provides 1,500 meals a day to its 500 prisoners, used to throw all the scraps prisoners and staff left behind, as well as metal food tins, into a big skip destined for landfill.

Now PCS green rep Wayne Walters has set up an anaerobic digestion plant to convert food waste into electricity that has saved prison management and the taxpayer about £1,500 a month – that’s £18,000 a year just to clear plates! Solid waste from the process is even used as fertiliser on the prison gardens.

“This is something that most prisons could do that would not only save running costs but would also help save our planet for the future.”

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“I employ 10 prisoners at the moment, who help me to collect waste and run the plant, and this will be increasing to 12 in the near future,” Wayne explains.

“It’s a great thing for the prisoners to be involved with, and we are leading the way in showing what we can do with waste material and how we can use this as energy.”

The project is just part of the prison’s green reforms, which also include installing a new biomass boiler to burn wood chips instead of heating oil, recycling metal food cans, furniture and prisoners’ clothes, collecting rainwater from its roof and growing vegetables in prison greenhouses.

Other plans include offering qualifications in recycling for prisoners and turning a disused house on the grounds into an eco-centre that would be open to the public as well as acting as an educational facility for prisoners.

“I would really like to see other prisons start to recycle a lot more of their waste,” says Wayne. “This is something that most could do that would not only save running costs but would also help save our planet for the future.”

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Green skills « Feature «

High-level debate on climate change The TUC climate change conference in July included a high-level panel debate on the topical question: What makes a good green Government?

Speakers included Environment Secretary Chris Huhne, Shadow Environment Secretary Meg Hillier, and Green Party spokesperson Caroline Lucas MP. TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O’Grady chaired the panel.

The day also included discussions on green jobs and growth, including industry round tables; Coalition plans for the green economy roadmap; energy market reform; a low-carbon skills strategy; and the Green Investment Bank.

Tony Bates, chair of Unite at the InBev Magor brewery in Gwent, told the conference how a union-led project had saved the company £2 million in costs.

The TUC will produce a report, available online, from the day, which will be used to inform policy. n Trade union members have to be at the heart of the green skills revolution, a conference on Green Skills heard.

Graham Peterson, Environment Coordinator for the UCU union, which organised the conference, said green jobs must also be decent jobs, with decent levels of pay, health and safety, recognition of trade unions and career progression.

“As trade union members, we have to be at the heart of the green skills revolution,” he argued.

Unionlearn is being consulted by the Government’s crossdepartmental group on the development of the Government’s low-carbon skills strategy and ULRs are seen as key to supporting workers in this process.

Join the GreenWorkplaces Network Sarah Lewis, UNISON Branch Secretary at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, is full of praise for the TUC GreenWorkplaces Network.

The hospital trust has set up a joint environmental committee of members and staff, with agreed facility time to attend meetings and carry out project work to improve the work place environmentally – and Sarah is an active member.

“The network is really important because it gives you the ability to share good practice as well as ask questions if things are not working out,” says Sarah.

“It’s excellent for networking and communicating across the UK and the rest of world and a place to hear about training and events. It’s a key network to develop contacts and communication.”

TUC GreenWorkplaces Project Leader Sarah Pearce says the network offers a practical resource for reps to download the latest training materials and toolkits as well as online case studies to demonstrate the positive impact green reps have on the workplace.

“There are now thousands of reps trying to tackle climate change where they work, so we need more examples of best practice that we can share,” Sarah says.

“We need to build up that library of best practice case studies so that we can further strengthen our argument for statutory rights for green reps.”

>> To get involved visit

www.tuc.org.uk/workplace/ tuc-19203-f0.cfm

“As trade union members we have to be a the heart of the green revolution.”

Kevin’s energy fuels success

GMB ULR Kevin Maggs from A&P Falmouth has been rewarded for his work introducing environmental changes.

Kevin was honoured at the first South West TUC Awards for embedding a sustainable learning culture within the docks at his work and ensuring all employees have access to training.

Kevin volunteered to be a part of the A&P Falmouth Energy 2009 team, a committee formed by the directors to save the company 10 per cent of its energy costs in the first year.

“This was relatively easy to do, by addressing some of the ‘leakages’ around the docks: an example was to fit a new compressed air system and control systems to large pumps etc. As it got harder to make big savings, an idea was formed to engage the workforce in making savings,” Kevin says.

An education plan was put into practice with the help of the South West GreenWorkplaces Project.

“I approached MD Peter Childs and got his approval to put 100 of the workforce through the courses by Christmas 2010. This was a huge commitment from A&P to give up three hours per man, for nearly half of its permanent workforce.

We also had a new GMB environmental rep, Jason Hall, volunteer to run the courses, which are now a part of our in-house training and run by myself and Jason,” adds Kevin.

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» Interview » Lemn Sissay

We all need a helpi Encouragement is crucial if we are to achieve anything – especially when we’re learning, argues poet Lemn Sissay. By Astrid Stubbs With a poem about to be etched on the Olympic Park in time for 2012, author, poet, broadcaster and playwright Lemn Sissay has confounded the low expectations of the children’s homes he was brought up in.

“In my childhood I was not encouraged to learn in a structural way, to go to university, to develop my skills: there was an unspoken language that I would work in a factory,” he says.

As a child of the care system, Lemn’s future hardly looked bright.

Placed into care by his Ethiopian mother for what she thought would be a short time while she struggled to adjust to life in the UK, he remained with his new foster family until he was 11, when they put him back into care.

He lived in a variety of children’s homes until he was 18 and spent many years tracking down his birth family.

“University would have meant looking after me after 18, it had nothing to do with me but with the system: I was a statistic, shuffled through the system,” he says, Leaving school at 15 with a handful of CSEs, Lemn did, however, take with him the encouragement of one inspirational teacher.

“There is some part of our lives where we have been discouraged from the act of learning so that we fit in with someone else’s idea of who we are.”

“Mr Unsworth was a socialist, rugby-playing, bitterdrinking teacher – a wonderful human being and for three years after my childhood I grasped onto the one piece of encouragement I had been given by one inspirational teacher: it shows what a little bit of encouragement can do,” he argues.

By the same token, he says, not encouraging someone implies they are not worth the energy it takes to help them learn.

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“That is an unspoken language that a person takes on board – and it’s why people get to retirement age and think ‘I’ve always wanted to be…’,” he says.

“There is some part of our lives where we have been discouraged from the act of learning, so that we fit in with someone else’s idea of who we are.”

Lemn has worked with children in care and believes that things have not changed enough as long as one child has a bad experience.

“When a child is in care, the state is the legal parent and how it treats its children in care should be the litmus test of how good the Government is,” he says.

Lemn believes learning should be a right. “When you are discouraged from learning, it’s a way of being able to control you and to limit your horizons so that you don’t get above your station – the whole idea of not getting above your station is dangerous and widely used – and you should get above your station!” he says.

“Learning has taught me that I don’t get over my past but I’m not embarrassed by it. It is what it is and I accept it wholeheartedly, and one of most important things about learning to me is to accept who you are and grow – bloody grow!”

Lemn hopes his latest landmark on the Olympic Park will lead to more across the country.

He’d particularly love to see the Bruntwood Building near Piccadilly in Manchester embellished with a poem. “I’d give my eye teeth to have a poem down the side of it.”

Meanwhile, he is excited that his poem Let There Be Peace will shortly adorn a student accommodation building in the city.

“Landmarks are utterly democratic because people choose a landmark, they refer to it as a place ‘round the corner from the pub with the poem on it’. My idea is that we should paint the whole country with poems!”

He adds that reading Spark Catchers to an audience at the unionlearn conference could not have been in a better place.

“Unions have alway been open to poetry – poetry is central to the union movement: poetry’s in the heart of revolution because revolution is in the heart of the poet,” he adds.

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Lemn Sissay « Interview «

ping hand Life and Lemn z Aged 21, Lemn publishes his first book of poetry, Tender Fingers in a Clenched Fist.

Since then, he has read his poetry on stages throughout the world. z In 1995, the BBC makes a television documentary about his life called Internal Flight. z His 2005 drama Something Dark deals with his search for his family. It is later adapted for BBC Radio 3. z Lemn’s TV appearances range from The South Bank Show to Grumpy Old Men. He also makes documentaries for BBC radio and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio Four’s Saturday Live and contributes to Simon Mayo’s Book Panel. z In 2007, Lemn is appointed as artist-in-residence at the Southbank Centre in London. z In 2008, he publishes his book Listener. z In the 2010 New Year’s Honours List, Lemn is awarded an MBE. Photo: James Ross/Royal Festival Hall

What Lemn is reading 61 Hours

by Lee Childs

Alone in Berlin

by Hans Fallada

The Gift

by Lewis Hyde

Now and Then by Gil Scott-Heron

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» Update » Adult Learners’ Week

Merseylearn leads the way Merseytravel’s Director of Corporate Development Liz Chandler (left), ULR Coordinator Lianne Kinsella and Project Worker Stephen Woods receive their ALW award

Adult Learners’ Week marked its 20th anniversary with a wide range of events showcasing the best on offer across the country.

Merseylearn, the innovative learning and staff development arm of Merseytravel, won another major award for its groundbreaking work during the 20th Adult Learners’ Week in May. The Inspiring Learning Projects award, presented by the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education and sponsored by The Open University, recognised Merseylearn’s dedication and commitment to learning, transforming the lives of its employees, and those in the wider local transport sector, through work-based learning.

Photo:Caters Photographic

Digital Ambassador Vikki McDougall helps Cambridgeshire residents get online during Adult Learners’ Week as part of Digital Day

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“We were inspired and honoured to be included at the ALW awards, and it is obvious to us that adult learning at work supported by the trade unions has produced many life-changing opportunities for so many people,” commented Project Worker Tony Norbury.

Merseytravel Chief Executive Officer Neil Scales added: “This learning culture has reduced sickness, boosted morale, increased internal promotions and boosted the organisation’s reputation as a skills champion.”

Merseylearn is a partnership project supported by unionlearn that works with ULRs from UNISON, Unite, GMB, ASLEF, RMT and TSSA along with learning providers and transport sector employers to provide the best opportunities for transport sector workers to increase their skills and qualifications It’s also a Champion for Skills, with 98 per cent of staff now qualified to at least NVQ Level 2, supported by a commitment to staff professional development and an active approach to Skills for Life and ICT training that have helped Merseytravel recently retain its prestigious Investors in People Gold status.

n Adult Learners’ Week kicked off with a Cultural Diversity Weekend and events taking place up and down the country to celebrate the benefits of learning through exploring and embracing a range of cultures.

The week also included the National Awards Ceremony in Westminster, the first in a series of showcase events to celebrate the remarkable learning journeys of this year’s award winners.

Skills Minister John Hayes reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to adult learning in his speech at the event.

“The annual showcase of Adult Learners’ Week has helped to teach Britain that no learning is wasted and that no form of knowledge or skill can be considered a luxury,” he said.

Another first for the 20th anniversary was the launch of the first ALW Digital Day to help open doors to online learning.

Digital Day provided a hook for learning providers, teachers and tutors to use technology as part of their taster sessions and activities throughout Adult Learners’ Week.

>> Watch a video of the

winners at www.alw.org.uk/ winners-stories/winner-story/ 2011/merseylearn

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Adult Learners’ Week « Update «

That was the week that was

n Unionlearn Director Tom Wilson opened a new learning centre organised by Unite ULRs at Superdrug, South Elmsall.

ULRS also laid on a range of learning activities and Tom presented certificates to learners who had gained their ITQ Level 1. n Royal College of Midwives (RCM) members at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Maternity Wing at University College Hospital made a ‘dash for learning’ to promote learning in the workplace and the work of ULRs. The midwives took their trolleys around the unit, dispensing advice on learning, information about the RCM, freebies and healthy food.

There were also sessions on personal safety.

n Staff at New Charter Housing were spoilt for choice when the organisation launched its own Dragons’ Den 2011 and offered £10,000 for people to apply to fund any form of learning opportunity. The great give-away didn’t stop there, with two £1,000 scholarships available to enable people to realise a dream involving learning. n Staff at Diodes Zetex Semiconductors Ltd took part in a range of learning activities, with an emphasis on older workers.

ULRs from Unite arranged informal learning sessions on IT skills and sign language and also invited staff from the local Wellbeing Centre and Rowland Pharmacy to give advice.

A massage therapist was on hand to demonstrate techniques to alleviate back pains and other strains.

Diodes Zetex provided resources for the event and flexible break times.

RCM members make their dash for learning at University College Hospital in London

n Author and journalist Lucy Cavendish shared her joy of reading with visitors to the Herts Trade Union Learning Centre.

Famous for her tales of the trials and tribulations of Home Counties mums, Lucy said she couldn’t imagine a day without reading.

“For me, it is the most fun I could have at anytime, anywhere: reading has inspired me in every part of my life, from my own writing to my relationships with my nearest and dearest and the world around me.”

The Herts Trade Union Learning Centre provides learning opportunities to employees in Watford and is open to the community.

Knees up for a Zumba workshop in Liverpool

Quick Reads author Lucy Cavendish says she is inspired by reading in every part of her life

Photo: Rod Leon

An introduction to Spanish, brain teasers using a Wii console, number challenges and head massages were made accessible to all Serco staff at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth.

n UNISON ULRs organised a variety of taster learning sessions to encourage staff to develop their knowledge and increase their skills as part of a joint celebration at Derbyshire County Council.

Sessions included Information, Advice and Guidance, drop-in IT and opportunities to sign up for courses, while activities included skills checks and assessments, interview practice and CV writing guidance.

There were also sessions on equalities, writing skills, pensions, personal finances and stress management.

Photo: Helen Stephens

n ASLEF organised an Environmental Awareness Day at Orpington Traincrew Depot, with a quiz and prize of a solar powered wind-up radio.

Martin Lawford, a shunt driver from Orpington, came in for special praise for encouraging many fellow members of staff to participate.

The workforce has a large contingency of Polish speaking workers who were able to take part fully with guidance and support from Ania Kondera, GMB Migrant Project Worker.

As a result over 80 employees took part in the day.

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Photos: Martin Jenkinson

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With the help of construction union UCATT, housing company Wilmott Dixon has opened a new training centre in Scarborough where local residents can improve their skills alongside qualified tradespeople

Plumbing

new heights Plumber Liz Laughton puts her new skills to good use under the watchful eye of supervisor Andy Thwaites

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Learning centre « Feature «

With the help of unionlearn and construction union UCATT, housing company Wilmott Dixon has opened a new training centre in Scarborough that’s open to members of the local community as well as its own workforce.

What was once a dilapidated storage area was transformed last year into a fully equipped, flexible and tailored learning centre in the space of six weeks.

It is now fully equipped with classroom furniture, a whiteboard, projector and laptop computers, and its flexible arrangement means that it can also be used to deliver training in practical construction skills, including tiling and plastering, painting and decorating and plumbing.

“It has been really, really advantageous to work with UCATT,” says Willmott Dixon Training Manager Sharon Ayles. “The training centre would not have been possible without their input.”

The centre now offers training in trade skills such as carpentry, plumbing, joinery and decorating to Willmott Dixonʼs local maintenance team, which means workers don’t have to travel to other sites across the country for training sessions.

It’s also open to members of the local community looking to find out more about the construction sector – particularly those who are unemployed or have been affected by redundancies and business closures.

“We identified a need for a local training facility in a comfortable and familiar environment for our tradespeople and the wider community,” says Willmott Dixon’s General Manager at Scarborough Derek Dyer.

“We also want to improve our employeesʼ quality of life and work–life balance – and reducing travelling time is one way of doing that.”

Group Chief Executive Rick Willmott formally opened the centre in the autumn, alongside Acting UCATT Regional Secretary Steve Murphy, Scarborough Mayor Hazel Lynskey, and Yorkshire Coast Homes (YCH) Chief Executive Steve Oldridge (the company provides repairs and maintenance to YCH housing stock in Scarborough and Whitby).

“Willmott Dixon has been in existence for 158 years and has been through recessions and economic downturns before,” says Head of Customer Service and Training Huw Evans.

“To get through the bad times we believe that you need to invest in the people who work for you.”

Stuart Witty, production manager with the company, has experienced learning from both sides at the centre.

He helps deliver monthly ‘toolbox talks’ for tradespeople that cover issues such as new policies and procedures and health and safety updates and providing open forums to feedback on workplace issues.

As a learner, Stuart has been taking part in Excel training. “I thought it very good and the facilities are great,” he says.

Stuart is happy that his union has a higher profile now that it is involved with the centre and he is hoping to see it get involved with offering more people in the local community free training. “That would be the next step,” he says.

Eighteen-year-old Tom Holdenby took a one-day health and safety course at the centre after approaching Wilmott Dixon off his own bat towards the end of a twoyear Level 3 Diploma in Construction and the Built Environment at York College.

“This initiative shows how a progressive union can work with companies for the benefit of its members and the local community.”

Adrian Kurlei is one of the many local school students to benefit from work experience at Wilmott Dixon

“The room was full of joiners, electricians, plasterers, all the different tradespeople – I was the only work experience person there but they treated me as one of their own, I felt very comfortable,” he says.

Since taking the safety course, Tom has been spending two days a week with one of the company’s qualified electricians, learning by watching how he approaches his different jobs and getting involved when he can. “I like hands-on learning like that,” he says.

Tom hopes that the time he’s put in will pay off later this year. “I’m looking to start an apprenticeship when college starts in the autumn, and I hope my work experience will stand me in good stead with Wilmott Dixon,” he says.

UCATT’s Steve Murphy says the centre will allow a wide range of people to improve their skills and gain decent qualifications.

“This initiative shows how a progressive union can work with companies for the benefit of its members and the local community,” he says.

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» Feature » Community learning

Catch the learning

Photos: Colin McPherson

All over the country, union learning projects are taking their expertise out into the local community and inspiring a whole new network of local learners.

By Martin Moriarty

“We have broader partnerships right across the community and we’re raising people’s expectations that learning is for everyone.”

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Community learning « Feature « Stephen Woods (left) and Andy Thornton are working to extend Merseylearn’s partnerships with the local community

g bus The innovative learning partnership at Merseytravel has been reaching out into the local community since it began its region-wide Taxi Driver Training Programme in 2006 as part of its Union Learning Fund (ULF) project.

The programme, backed in partnership by the management and unions of the public transport authority, helped develop qualifications for new and existing taxi drivers, and trained a group of union learning reps to spread the word throughout the taxi and private hire sector.

That’s how taxi driver Carl Werbiski came to use one of Merseylearn’s three learning centres, at Mersey Tunnels, to improve his literacy and numeracy skills for the NVQ. “Once I got into the education system I begun to really enjoy it: I felt empowered,” he recalls.

In fact, completing his NVQ gave him so much confidence that he has since secured NVQ and A1 Assessors Awards and is thinking about taking Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS) that would qualify him to teach in the adult learning sector.

Running IAG sessions for people interested in joining the taxi trade also helps spread the word about learning, points out Merseylearn Project Worker Stephen Woods.

“The sessions are useful: they pass on information about learning and development to the taxi community, and they themselves are a big community that can pass on information, as you know when you sit in the back of anyone’s cab,” he says.

After further extending learning opportunities to local bus workers and to staff on the Merseyrail network, the logical next step was to build partnerships with the wider community, explains Merseylearn Manager Andy Thornton.

“Now we have evolved so that we’re much more outward-facing, and we have broader partnerships with our sector partners not only in public transport organisations but right across the community, and we’re raising people’s expectations that learning is for everyone,” he says.

One of Merseylearn’s key partners is the Liverpool Community Learning Champions (CLCs) Project, which, alongside Merseylearn, also won an Adult Learners’ Week award this year after helping to inspire more than 3,000 people across the city to learn (over 80 per cent of them new to adult learning).

The two projects are building links between workplace-based ULRs and community-based CLCs with a series of joint activities that give them a chance to meet, exchange ideas, share resources and make contacts for further collaborative projects.

Back in autumn 2010, Merseylearn organised a coach trip around five areas of Liverpool for CLCs and ULRs: a CLC from each of the five neighbourhoods they passed through – Alt Valley, City & North, Liverpool East, South Central and South Liverpool – took to the microphone to act as tour guide for the area.

The coach trip was followed up by a crosssector event at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport in December, where CLCs and ULRs met to discuss working together in general and plan activities for this year’s Learning At Work (LAW) Day in particular.

This time, the informal learning element of the day featured a behind-the-scenes tour of the airport that included a visit to the air traffic control tower to watch staff guiding planes in and out of the surrounding skies.

The group also took the chance to check out the Art Bus, a fully equipped mobile learning centre provided by Notre Dame Catholic College that’s available for local groups to hire.

Merseylearn is also one of 60 pilot online centres across the UK working with Remploy to offer refurbished computers for £98 in a bid to reach the 9 million adults in the country currently without access to computer-based online services.

“We’re one of the very few organisations who’ve got the facilities to bring those opportunities to the different sectors of the community, helping people who are digitally disadvantaged access training and perhaps get online for the first time ever,” Andy says.

T Unionlearn Yorkshire and the Humber engaged almost 7,000 adults in a wide variety of informal learning sessions during the Celebration of Learning in autumn 2010 by working with everyone from members of sports clubs to church congregations to offer people of all ages the chance to try something new.

T Newcastle UNISON is leading a unique partnership project with Newcastle City Council to develop Community Learning Champions to spread the word about lifelong learning in Black and minority ethnic (BME) and other communities in the city.

T The Trade Union Study Centre, based in Woolwich, south London, raises its profile with events in supermarkets and local libraries; builds links with Sure Start and other children’s centres; and offers literacy, numeracy and IT support to people referred for help from the local Jobcentre Plus.

Look out for a new unionlearn case study survey of union projects working with community initiatives later this summer.

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» Briefing » Apprenticeships

Let’s have more like Brendan Unionlearn is backing the Wolf Report’s call for more quality apprenticeships to help young people into productive careers.

Unite member Brendan Burr has won Young Engineeer of the Year in the Manufacturing Industry Awards.

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Brendan Burr (centre) collects his young engineer award from Bob Hunt, Chair of the MTA’s Education and Training Committee, and the BBC’s Louise Minchin.

“We agree with Professor Wolf’s support for the expansion of high-quality apprenticeships that will offer genuine career progression for young people.”

Tom also endorses Professor Wolf’s view that young people should have a general education to the age of 16, including the achievement of minimum standards in maths and English, and that 14 is too early to specialise.

“Unionlearn is working closely with unions and the National Apprenticeship Service to build the capacity of union reps to support young apprentices in the workplace and to encourage more employers to recruit them,” he says.

The TUC says that many of the recommendations in the report regarding apprenticeships throw out a huge challenge to employers – in particular the focus on quality and the need for employers to ensure that young apprentices are engaged in training that supports the acquisition of a wider skill set and not just occupation-specific training.

“Recent criticisms by employers of the minimum standards relating to time off for training in the existing apprenticeship specification standard suggest that the Government will have to take a very robust approach if it is going to require all employers with young apprentices to adopt the approach recommended by Professor Wolf,” the TUC says.

Illustrations: Russell Tate

Brendan, who is in the final year of his apprenticeship at AgustaWestland, Yeovil, won his award for consistently exceeding expectations.

His apprenticeship involves a range of placements at the business, and feedback from each has always been very positive and his company has received numerous requests to employ him when he finishes.

And it’s quality apprenticeships like Brendan’s that should be at the heart of vocational education, says Tom Wilson, Director of unionlearn, responding to a review by Professor Alison Wolf.

Last year, Education Secretary Michael Gove commissioned Professor Wolf to undertake a review of vocational education for young people under 19 years of age.

One of the major themes of her report is that too many young people are engaged in vocational courses that do not offer them a “successful pathway into employment or higher education.”

This includes the fact, she says, that too few 16- to 18-year-olds are able to gain access to high-quality apprenticeships and the increasing number of apprenticeships in recent years has disproportionately helped those aged 19-plus. Quality needs to be benchmarked against apprenticeship models in other countries, she adds.

Professor Wolf’s recommendations include increasing young people’s access to apprenticeship as a Government priority and of the utmost importance to the future of 16–18 vocational education.

“We agree with Professor Wolf's support for the expansion of highquality apprenticeships that will offer genuine career progression for young people,” says Tom Wilson.

“It is interesting that she makes the point that in general apprenticeships in the UK compare less favourably with those in many other European countries, which tend to offer a broader level of training.”

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Apprenticeships « Briefing «

Unionlearn brought together business and union leaders, politicians and academics to look into the future for apprenticeships.

Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee put the key questions to round table participants

Where next for

Union and business leaders, academics and politicians examined the future for apprenticeships at a unionlearn round table discussion chaired by Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee in June.

Dr Mary Bousted, who chairs the unionlearn Board, was one of several leading union participants in the round table discussion

Illustrations: Russell Tate

They gathered at The Guardian’s London headquarters to discuss how to encourage more employers to invest in high-quality vocational training so that the current expansion of apprenticeships can help the UK gain the skills it needs to compete on the global stage.

In order to encourage open discussion and a frank exchange of views, the round table was held under Chatham House rules, which means contributions cannot be attributed to named participants.

The good news from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills is that the latest statistics show that the Government has delivered more than 103,000 additional adult apprenticeship starts over the 2010–11 financial year, over double the number originally planned.

And it doesn’t want to stop there. Skills Minister John Hayes (who attended alongside Gordon Marsden, shadow minister for further education) is on record as saying that he wants to surpass the all-time record of 400,000 apprenticeships.

However, there is plenty more to do. Only 30 per cent of companies with 500-plus workers offer apprenticeships – compared to almost all firms of that size in Germany.

It’s against this background that Newcastle North MP Catherine McKinnell (who also took part in the discussion) has launched

Photos: Sam Friedrich

apprenticeships?

“The brand is at risk of being undermined by some employers providing sub-standard, low-paid training and calling it an apprenticeship.” her private members’ bill that calls for public procurement contracts to include commitments to provide apprenticeships.

Several employer representatives of good practice offered their experiences to the discussion, including Nigel Whitehead from BAE Systems, Andrew Thompson, SERCO, and Phil Handley from Caterpillar, and GMB Southern Region apprentice Anna Barnes added her perspective.

But union participants, including TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O’Grady, Unite Assistant General Secretary Gail Cartmail, Prospect Deputy General Secretary Leslie Manasseh and unionlearn Board Chair Mary Bousted, drew the round table’s attention to the less than exemplary employers.

The union argument is that that the brand is at risk of being undermined by firms providing sub-standard, low-paid training and calling it an apprenticeship, with greater transparency on pay rates required to ensure apprentices are paid properly.

The other major issue concerning union contributors was equality of participation. Unions are looking at ways to tackle disparities such as the 21 per cent pay gap between male and female apprentices and underrepresentation of members of Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities and disabled people.

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» Roundup » TUC Education with unionlearn FBU learning centre wins recognition

Physios get to grips with online support An interactive website for BME members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists union is providing tools to help tackle racism in the workplace.

The FBU has secured direct claim status from national awarding body NCFE following an external audit on a pilot Level 2 Health & Safety course delivered through its ULF Project.

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>> The new workbook Tackling Racism will be available on TUC Education courses

iCSP BME group members (from left) Coretta Edusei, Rekha Soni and Angela Aboagye with Saraka Keating, CSP national officer with responsibility for the equality network groups

Photo: Rod Leon

“I am delighted that we have received direct status so quickly having achieved two grade one inspections from NCFE,” says FBU National ULF Manager Trevor Shanahan.

“Great credit goes to all the FBU ULF staff who have been involved in delivering the course and well done to those FBU members who completed the course and now have a level 2 certificate in Health & Safety.”

The external verifier praised the organisation and delivery of the course as well as the quality of assessment and support for the learners.

The report concluded that it was “an exemplar centre” with the course delivered “in a professional manner” and that “IV and assessor systems and most importantly the delivery of the programme are to the highest standards”.

This was the first distance learning course to be delivered independently and internally with responsibility for induction, registration, delivery, assessment and verification undertaken by the FBU Learning Centre Staff and the FBU’s ULF Project Team.

Now it’s also being used in a new TUC workbook to illustrate how unions can work to combat racism.

The CSP interactive website (iCSP) has created networks for BME members along with Disabled and LGBT members, with the BME group now having nearly 600 participants.

Members receive regular briefings on equality-related issues, legal updates, news and information and iCSP also provides a forum for members to discuss issues of common interest and contact each other by email.

Peer support is a key element of the network – members volunteer to be put in touch with other members who are experiencing difficulties in the workplace: BME network members have offered support to students facing racial abuse while on clinical placement.

“Being part of the BME iCSP Network Group has been the greatest asset I have had in my profession,” says iCSP member Doreen Caesar.

“It has been a bridge between my other BME colleagues and myself to discuss professional and workplace issues.

“The group gave me tremendous support when I was facing workplace discrimination and this strengthened me not to give up as well as providing me with developmental opportunities to represent and speak on behalf of the group at conferences and meetings.”

Saraka Keating, National Officer with CSP says: “It has been an outstanding success from an equality and diversity point of view.”

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TUC Education with unionlearn « Roundup « Lee knows where he’s going UNISON rep Lee Pulford wanted to prove people wrong when they joked that he had only been given a job at Humberside Police so that officers knew where he was!

On paper they’re safety champs!

Eight Unite safety reps from Glenrothes-based papermakers Tullis Russell have been recognised for their hard work and commitment after completing a course at Adam Smith College.

The eight employees were awarded the STUC Safety Award at the STUC Congress in Ayr, having completed their TUC Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety .

“At Tullis Russell we are committed to having high standards of health and safety above and beyond the minimum required by law,” says learner Paul Reilly. “This course is helping us to improve our skills while individually gaining a qualification.”

Lecturer Jim Walker (centre) with (from left): Grant Hemphill, Derek Simpson, Bob Driscoll, Iain Roper, Cameron Page, Mike Foster (plus kneeling): Paul Reilly and David Wotherspoon

A hymn to north-east mining The Miners’ Hymns is a new DVD from the British Film Institute paying tribute to the history of coal mining in the North East.

The film by Bill Morrison with music by Jóhann Jóhannsson, is a compelling elegy focusing on the mines in the Durham area, showing the intense labour, vibrant community and rich culture that characterised the lives of those who worked underground during the 20th century.

Collaged from archive film, it celebrates social, cultural and political aspects of the now-extinct mining industry, and the strong regional tradition of colliery brass bands.

>> See the trailer at http://youtu.be/_6avULC9nuQ >> Buy the DVD from http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk

Lee, who works for the Support Branch, is taking his Health & Safety Diploma course at East Riding College, after first starting on a Stage 1 course six years ago.

Lee, who has dyslexia, dropped out initially but came back the following year and stuck with it, transforming himself in his ability and confidence.

“This diploma course must be one of the hardest things that I have ever done but I am so much more confident now in dealing with my employer,” he says.

“Learning is still hard for me but it is a good boost not to be judged by what I put down on paper. I think that the class also has been great: there is a real sense of what unions are all about – looking after one another and helping others though tough times.”

Dave Parr, Head of Curriculum Area – Trade Union Studies at East Riding, says Lee had achieved something remarkable: “This is the reason we get out of bed in the morning,” he says.

Equalities diploma launched A pilot diploma in equalities for trade union reps gets underway this autumn, with a great deal of interest already generated.

The diploma is designed to bring together all the threads of the equality agenda so that reps have a thorough grounding in union policy, best practice and equality law. It also develops values and skills needed for higher-level study and activism.

The diploma is also planned to be available online for reps who need a more flexibly delivered programme.

Details from your local TUC Education centre or Regional Education Officer.

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» Roundup » TUC Education with unionlearn

Life-saver Tim wins award Unite member Tim Benn saved the life of his colleague Roger Allsop when they were both severely injured in an accident at work.

Tim Benn, a maintenance engineer at Unilever in Barnwood, Gloucester, won a special commendation for extraordinary courage in the first South West TUC awards.

Photo: Clint Randall

He and colleague Roger Allsop were carrying out routine maintenance on the large refrigeration units used to cool ice cream made at the site when a valve exploded, covering them in ammonia.

Roger took the full force of the toxic chemical in his face but Tim carried him up a ladder, across a landing, down three flights of stairs and across a road to an emergency shower in an extraordinary feat of courage and strength that undoubtedly saved his life.

Roger was rushed to hospital where he remained blind for weeks and although he has recovered, his sight is impaired and he has no sense of taste or smell.

To this day, he remembers nothing of the accident.

Tim still suffers flashbacks.

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“Tim showed tremendous courage and solidarity to his workmate on that dreadful day: we are pleased to be able to use this occasion to say ‘thank you’,” said South West TUC Regional Secretary Nigel Costley.

“Trade unions have worked hard over generations to make work safer but people still get hurt and killed: Roger would have been another killed-at-work statistic had it not been for Tim’s determination to get him to the treatment that saved his life.”

Tim was one of 13 individuals and two groups from the South West who received awards for their outstanding work in representing their colleagues and for their

“Roger would have been another killed-at-work statistic had it not been for Tim’s determination to get him to the treatment that saved his life.” achievements in promoting equality, health and safety and learning in the workplace.

“This is the real story of what trade unions do day in, day out on behalf of working people – keeping them safe, helping them learn, promoting equality and representing them in every aspect of their employment,” said Nigel.

Unite member Tim Benn (right) with the colleague whose life he saved, Roger Allsop

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TUC Education with unionlearn « Roundup « On the right path Progression pathways for all trade union reps is a new guide about progression in the work that reps do to support union learners. It will help them think about gaining skills and knowledge in advice and guidance, coaching, mentoring and facilitating learning.

Promoting courses has helped ULRs recruit more learning reps

Fire service learners burn brightly Learners from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service were awarded at an event at Leigh Fire Station and Technical Centre.

The event was organised by the service with the FBU, UNISON and education provider the University of Bolton, which received a unionlearn Quality Award in 2010 for a range of learning initiatives offered to unions, including a previous NEBOSH course for the FBU. Certificates were presented to 50 recent successful PTLLS Level 4 students and the event also promoted the progression route CTLLS Level 5 aimed at equipping fire service employees to pass on their skills more effectively.

Many staff are involved in training or have aspirations to do so. For those taking early retirement and voluntary severance from the service, the qualifications may also prove invaluable as first steps to delivering training in a wide range of external environments.

“The first run of the PTLLS course was very popular and the demand for a repeat run and progression onto CTLLS shows that people are keen to learn how to pass on their skills,” explained FBU ULR Paul Smith.

UNISON ULR Lorraine Whitehead said promoting the course had been a great success. “Because of the interest it has generated I have also been able to recruit a number of members as ULRs,” she added.

Alison’s dedication secures safety prize PCS rep Alison Roder’s dedication has helped her branch win the annual PCS Health and Safety Ron Brown Shield.

Alison works at the Ministry of Justice in London, where she is a PCS health and safety rep in the HQ1 Branch, which has over 800 members.

She joined the WEA’s TUC accredited Health and Safety Stage One course last year and has since progressed to Stage Two.

“The courses have helped me particularly to be proactive and push for improvements and policy changes that are needed, instead of just waiting for problems to arise,” Alison says.

Tutor Anthony Samaroo recalls how Alison wrote a fantastic health and safety audit for her workplace.

“Alison shines on the courses,” PCS rep Alison he says.

Roder celebrates her branch’s award with tutor Anthony Samaroo

Southampton MPs John Denham and Alan Whitehead launched the guide at an event with ULRs and learners at Southampton College in June, alongside unionlearn SERTUC Regional Manager Barry Francis.

Alan said progression and developing new skills were important to both individuals and the wider economy.

>> Download a copy at

www.unionlearn.org.uk/files/ publications/documents/ 210.pdf

Teaching support An information and advice event offered welcome support for Cornish teachers and school staff facing redundancy and job cuts.

The event at unionlearn’s Unet Centre in St Austell was a joint collaboration by ATL, NUT, NASUWT, GMB, Unite and UNISON. Six ULRs were on hand to offer support alongside advice from 18 support agencies, including CAB, JCP, Next Step, local providers and the tax office.

Unions had secured paid release from Cornwall Council for staff affected by redundancy.

“It has been very useful to have all the agencies I need to speak to, in one place, on one day, and with no queuing: I now feel I can move forward,” said ATL member Jason Hurr, who has accepted voluntary redundancy.

One of the teachers attending thanked the unions for arranging the event. “I have gained more information and support in the last hour, than I have received in the last six months!”

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» Contacts

unionlearn contacts All TUC email addresses are first initial followed by surname@tuc.org.uk

» Unionlearn Tel: 020 7079 6920 Fax: 020 7079 6921 unionlearn@tuc.org.uk www.unionlearn.org.uk Director Tom Wilson Tel: 020 7079 6922 twilson@tuc.org.uk

» National unionlearn managers Standards and Quality Ian Borkett Tel: 020 7079 6940 iborkett@tuc.org.uk Research and Strategy Bert Clough Tel: 020 7079 6925 bclough@tuc.org.uk Communications James Asser Tel: 020 7079 6942 jasser@tuc.org.uk Trade Union Education Liz Rees Tel: 020 7079 6923 lrees@tuc.org.uk Union Development Judith Swift Tel: 0151 243 2568 jswift@tuc.org.uk Business and Finance Manager Catherine McClennan Tel: 07795 606 982 cmcclennan@tuc.org.uk Informal Adult Learning Joe Fearnehough Tel: 0151 236 7678 jfearnehough@tuc.org.uk

» U-Net centres Helen Gagliasso Tel: 0191 227 5567 hgagliasso@tuc.org.uk

» Website Jay Sreedharan Tel: 020 7079 6943 jsreedharan@tuc.org.uk

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» Southern and Eastern Tel: 020 7467 1251 Regional Manager Barry Francis Union Development Coordinator Jon Tennison Regional Education Officers Rob Hancock Theresa Daly

» Midlands Tel: 0121 236 4454 Regional Manager Mary Alys Union Development Coordinator Gary O’Donnell Regional Education Officer Pete Try

» Northern Regional Manager Kevin Rowan Tel: 0191 227 5565 Union Development Coordinator Beth Farhat Tel: 0191 227 5576 Regional Education Officer Ian West Tel: 0191 227 5572

» North West Regional Manager Dave Eva Tel: 0151 236 2321 Union Development Coordinator Tony Saunders Liverpool office Tel: 0151 236 2321 Manchester office Tel: 0161 445 0077 Regional Education Officer Peter Holland Tel: 0151 243 2564

» South West

» Union contacts

Regional Manager Helen Cole Tel: 0117 947 0521 Union Development Coordinator Ros Etheridge Regional Development Worker Alan Shearn Tel: 0117 947 0521 Regional Education Officer Marie Hughes Tel: 0117 933 4443

Aslef Shirley Handsley Tel: 07739 473 174 shirley.handsley@aslef.org.uk Aspect Nelly Tackla-Wright Tel: 01226 383 428 nelly@aspect.org.uk ATL Kate Quigley Tel: 020 7782 1558 kquigley@atl.org.uk BECTU Brian Kelly Tel: 020 7346 0900 bkelly@bectu.org.uk BFAWU John Vickers Tel: 01132 565 925 john.vickers@bfawu.org BSU Vikki Botham Tel: 07717 805 521 vikki.powell@britannia.co.uk Community Tom Davis Tel: 01562 749 170 tom.davis@communitas.org.uk CSP Penny Bromley Tel: 020 7306 6666 pbromley@csp.org.uk CWU Paul Dovey Tel: 020 8971 7212 pdovey@cwu.org Equity Louise Grainger Tel: 020 7670 0214 lgrainger@equity.org.uk FBU Trevor Shanahan Tel: 07917 759 473 trevor.shanahan@fbu.org.uk FDA Neil Rider Tel: 020 7401 5575 neil@fda.org.uk NAPO Jonathan Ledger Tel: 020 7223 4887 jledger@napo.org.uk NASUWT Stephen Smith Tel: 0121 453 6150 lifelong.learning@mail.nasuwt.org.uk NUJ Linda King Tel: 020 7843 3717 lindak@nuj.org.uk NUM Chris Skidmore Tel: 01226 215 555 rossomain@fsmail.net NUT Andrew Parry Williams Tel: 020 7380 4800/4780 learning.reps@nut.org.uk PCS David McEvoy Tel: 020 7801 2727 ext 2360 david.mcevoy@pcs.org.uk

» Yorkshire and the Humber Tel: 0113 245 4909 Regional Manager Alan Roe Union Development Coordinator Sharon Burke Regional Education Officer Trevor Sargison Tel: 0113 200 1071

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Resources «

Jay knows PFA Alan Irwin Tel: 07717 467 718 ieteuk@yahoo.co.uk POA Phil Kelly Tel: 020 8803 1761 pkellypoa@yahoo.co.uk Prospect Rachel Bennett Tel: 020 7902 6687 rachel.bennett@prospect.org.uk RCM Denise Linay Tel: 020 7312 3422 denise.linay@rcm.org.uk RCN Linda McBride Tel: 020 7647 3855 linda.mcbride@rcn.org.uk RMT Teresa Williams Tel: 07881 812 244 t.williams@rmt.org.uk SCP Liz Salem Tel: 01625 829 396 liz@scpod.org TSSA Sal Morawetz Tel: 020 7529 8049 morawetzs@tssa.org.uk UCATT Jeff Hopewell Tel: 01302 360 725 jhopewell@ucatt.org.uk UFS Patricia Mayo Tel: 01242 253 259 patricia.mayo@ufsdirect.org UNISON Joanna Cain Tel: 020 7551 1700 j.cain@unison.co.uk Unite Tom Beattie Tel: 020 8462 7755 tom.beattie@unitetheunion.org Unite Jim Telford Tel: 07980 874 662 jim.telford@unitetheunion.org Unity Gerald Crookes Tel: 01782 280 588 geraldcrookes@unitytheunion.org.uk URTU Graham Cooper Tel: 07795 562 874 grahamcurtu@yahoo.co.uk USDAW Ann Murphy Tel: 0161 224 2804 ann.murphy@usdaw.org.uk

Jay Sreedharan, unionlearn’s website officer, answers some recent questions raised by site visitors Q My colleague was recently offered a promotion but he is struggling to adapt to his new job. He thinks his dyslexia is holding him back and he is very unhappy. How can I help?

A Many people with dyslexia may experience anxiety, frustration and low selfesteem and this is particularly likely in the workplace, especially when they have not received adequate advice on how to manage their job.

In this circumstance it is important for people to disclose that they have dyslexia to their employers so that their needs can be met. As a ULR, you can be a good source of support for people who are thinking about disclosing their dyslexia. This is a personal decision and depends on personal factors, as well as on the culture of the workplace.

Many people feel reluctant to disclose their dyslexia because they are concerned about how they will be treated. Reps need to be aware of these issues and ensure that they are able to empathise with their members.

Employers must act reasonably in responding to performance difficulties that may have resulted from a dyslexic employee.

An informal plan of action can be created between the manager and the dyslexic employee (negotiated and monitored with the assistance of the union and personnel).

This can provide clear objectives and timescales and can eventually lead to improved performance. The objectives of such a plan could include: z dyslexia awareness training for all stakeholders, particularly those with direct line management responsibility for dyslexic employees z clear job responsibilities and task procedures drawn up by management in conjunction with union representatives and the dyslexic employee z workflows organised to ensure there are no 'non-urgent' interruptions for those engaged in detailed work z specialist one-to-one training for the dyslexic employee such as reading and writing strategies, concentration and memory improvement techniques, planning, time management and organisational skills and the use of specialist dyslexia support software.

>> For more information, contact: British Dyslexia Association www.bdadyslexia.org.uk Adult Dyslexia Organisation www.adult-dyslexia.org

You can also refer to our new booklet Dyslexia: http://tinyurl.com/3gqzoec Q I am advising someone who already has an Honours degree. Would they be able to apply for a Foundation degree in a different subject?

A It is not unusual for individuals with undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications to undertake a Foundation degree. Around 20 per cent of Foundation degree students already have higher education qualifications. Some of these individuals may be seeking to change careers or perhaps to gain very specific technical skills and knowledge in their existing field.

Take a look at our Looking for your career path brochure, which is aimed at prospective Foundation degree students. It is for employees considering taking a Foundation degree while working.

Anyone thinking of studying a Foundation degree will want to be sure that the course will be the best route to fulfilling personal and career goals. Unionlearn and Foundation Degree Forward (fdf) have put together a list of questions for prospective learners to ask before making a decision: Choosing to do a Foundation degree while working – a checklist for learners.

>> To download these publications and to find out more about Foundation degrees, visit http://tinyurl.com/67cu7vk

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Resources « Roundup «

Fmrateerieals

Order now from www.unionlearn.org.uk/freebooks And postage and packing is also free new

Union Professional Development Programme 2011 Now in its seventh year, the union professional development programme has been updated by TUC tutors for 2011. And there are new courses in the core and bespoke programme available to support the professional development of union staff.

unionlearn Annual Conference Report Review of the previous year for unionlearn. Published for the annual conference.

new Gearing up for Change This booklet of easy to read, short case studies highlights the variety of ways the Skills: Recession and Recovery project has made an impact.

Gearing up for Change tells eight stories from around England with different views on how the unionlearn's Skills: Recession and Recovery project has engaged with trade unions and other stakeholders.

new Learning Journeys – trade union learner in their own words This report explores, in the words of the learners themselves, the extent to which union learning facilitates equality and diversity in access to learning and precipitates further personal development, job progression and/or employability for learners.

new Progression Pathways for all trade union reps This guide is about progression in the work that you do to support union learners. It will help you to think about gaining skills and knowledge in advice and guidance and coaching, mentoring and facilitating learning.

Union learning adding value Summary of the report published last year evaluating unionlearn and the union learning fund by the Centre for Employment Relations at Leeds University.

Unions and Sector Skills Councils A series of case studies of social partnership good practice. This booklet details just some of the ways in which unions and SSCs already work together and is a follow-up to the highly successful seminar on the subject earlier in the year.

Spread the word about the work of ULRs and learning project workers by ordering more copies of The Learning Rep. Give them to colleagues at work, learners and anyone interested in union learning.

Scan this code to go straight to the link for The Learning Rep mailing list or to order additional copies.