Union Engagement - Learning in the workplace and the community

Learning in the workplace and the community

Foreword As unionlearn’s national Union Development Manager, I very much hope that you enjoy, and find useful, this case study booklet of union engagement in learning and skills.

This covers the following: ǃǃ Employer engagement – bargaining for skills ǃǃ Adult English and maths ǃǃ Learning centres ǃǃ Digital inclusion and ICT learning ǃǃ Community learning.

Here are some wonderful stories which show how unions’ work is changing lives. All of these areas within union development are interrelated – adult learners often come back into learning at many different points in their lives and, with the right encouragement, take themselves in many exciting directions.

Learning centres and learning spaces provide people with the opportunity to start learning. This could be beginners’ ICT, English and maths or informal community learning.

Once started, learners usually don’t stop. Union learning representatives (ULRs) are providing pathways to further learning.

The first step back into learning is always the hardest.

Therefore, physically bringing opportunities closer to people, such as through learning centres and outreach work, is really valued by learners. These centres become an oasis. Creating opportunities that strike a chord with learners’ aspirations, yet overcome fears, is equally important. The combination of readily available learning spaces, and interesting and relevant learning, really does make the difference for so many.

It is hard to overestimate the importance to workplace learners of employers supporting their learning and development. Equally, this is something that benefits employers themselves and often has unexpected bonuses for their business.

This booklet showcases the inspiring work of unions and their partners. We hope it provides ideas and encouragement for your work.

Judith Swift Union Development Manager

The initial choice of learning opportunity is usually one where adult learners feel supported or encouraged by their ULR. The main aim is to make this first opportunity the most enjoyable and meaningful experience it can be. We know that when this happens, learners invariably get an appetite for learning that transforms their lives and opens doors to opportunities they never could have imagined.

This is what unions are good at!

ULRs are the critical people as the personal touch they bring really does open up those doors. Because ULRs come from similar backgrounds to those they are encouraging and helping, they understand the barriers people face. Sometimes those barriers are physical, and often they are psychological. Many adults face multiple barriers of course.

Foreword

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Contents Employer engagement Lifelong learning in Usdaw – nothing succeeds like success!

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FBU learning grows with partnerships

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English and maths learning Promoting love of reading and creative writing with UNISON

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Reach out and learn functional skills

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Learning centres Crunching numbers at McVitie’s

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POA learning centre on community journey

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Digital inclusion Manchester goes digital with Go ON

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Prospect digital champions generate inclusion

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Community learning Switching on communities to energy saving

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Community learning champions take off

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Union engagement learning in the workplace and the community

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employer engagement

Effective partnerships between trade unions and employers are the basis for successful workplace learning.

Unionlearn supports unions in engaging employers in the process of building a workplace learning offer that ensures equality of access and is relevant to both business and staff. Learning agreements are the foundation for establishing the commitments made in these partnerships and offer a valuable framework for delivering learning activity. Learning agreements include a framework for equality of access to learning, the role of union learning reps, set-up for learning centres and as many other topics as there are workplace learning situations.

How learning agreements are reached is also as varied as the unions, employers and workplaces involved.

Delivering one can be the end of a long road of negotiation and robust arguments or it can be the start of a new relationship between employers and unions.

Unionlearn has produced guidance to help unions consider the best way for them to develop agreements and their contents, and which offers both employers and unions a chance to discuss good practice. These support materials can be found at: www.unionlearn.org.uk/our-workand-projects/skills-investment/ employer-engagement

Lifelong learning in Usdaw – nothing succeeds like success!

As the UK’s fourth largest union, Usdaw represents workers in a range of different occupations, employed in companies of many different shapes and sizes. Not surprisingly then, learning agreements are negotiated at different levels, according to the structure of the employer and the level at which collective bargaining takes place.

Company-wide and major national agreements tend to be negotiated by the Usdaw National Coordinator for Lifelong Learning, Ann Murphy, often working alongside the appropriate national officer. Usdaw also has a team of Lifelong learning project workers based in its geographical divisions, who deliver learning agreements at workplace level within their region.

Much of the success that the lifelong team has enjoyed is a result of their integration into the fabric of the union. Although project workers hold specialised skills and knowledge they are very much seen as part of the wider union team. Project workers attend Usdaw’s staff meetings to promote the learning agenda among the union’s industrial officials. As a result of this long-term engagement strategy area organisers have realised that learning activities can help deliver significant benefits across the spectrum of Usdaw’s priorities.

This has created a virtuous circle, where area organisers are working much more closely with their Lifelong learning project worker.

One such project worker is Martyn Warwick, who works in Usdaw’s North East Division, and feels Usdaw has made real progress in embedding learning and skills into the mainstream collective bargaining

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agenda. “Area organisers are much more switched on to lifelong learning than when I started, ten years ago,” says Martyn. Because he uses a tried and tested model as the basis for learning agreements, some area organisers are happy to leave Martyn to negotiate the fine detail, while others are more hands on, but all will help get agreements finalised when needed.

Most importantly, the learning agreement is of limited value unless it leads to learning activity and secures practical support from the employer, such as at least an element of paid release for learning activity. This might seem a rather optimistic expectation to some, but Martyn works with one employer who regularly backfills with agency staff to allow employees to take time off to learn.

Martyn believes that Area organisers see the potential of learning activity to support Usdaw’s overall aims and strategy, delivering genuine benefits to members and so adding value to union membership, raising the union’s profile and demonstrating that the union is not only concerned with its traditional roles, but with improving members’ lives more holistically. He also says that learning activity can attract hard-to-reach workers, citing his experience working at the Vion site at Scunthorpe, which engaged a large group of Polish workers with the union. Successes of this kind are soon disseminated around the union, generating similar approaches at other workplaces.

A good learning agreement will also, of course, enable the union to set up a network of union learning reps (ULRs). Martyn is very clear that ULRs must be linked in to mainstream union structures. Although ULRs have a specialist role to play, his aim is that all Usdaw workplace activists accept responsibility for supporting learning activities. Usdaw does not have a single prescribed model for this – some ULRs are also stewards, while others focus solely on the ULR role. Where facilities permit, Martyn’s favoured approach is for the senior steward to take an active role on all Usdaw workplace committees, including the ULRs’ committee. This helps to keep learning a priority on the union agenda and ensure that ULRs are fully supported. Another approach Martyn has used to cement ULRs into mainstream structures is to conduct ongoing joint training at the workplace for all stewards, safety reps and ULRs together, in subjects like meeting skills and team working, once they have completed their separate, role-specific training.

Workers at the Vion site have recently transferred to a new employer, but the learning agreement transfers with them, so Usdaw will be able to pick up the learning activity again once the transfer process has settled in. This demonstrates the value of having a learning agreement in place, but Usdaw’s view is that a learning agreement, however important, is not an end in itself – it is simply one element of the union’s learning activities in the workplace.

Union engagement learning in the workplace and the community

It’s not difficult to appreciate the benefits from Usdaw’s viewpoint, but how does the union convince employers to commit the necessary resources and time to their employees’ learning?

Martyn explains that this is initially achieved by explaining the business benefits. Simply having employees who are prepared to learn new skills can be valuable for employers, so the role that ULRs play in encouraging and supporting workers back into learning is crucial. Many skills and knowledge gained purely for personal interest often have applications in work as well as outside. Usdaw also emphasises the way that learning activity can improve staff morale, which has a positive impact across a variety of workplace issues.

From here on, Usdaw’s strategy is to engage the employer in joint working around learning initiatives. Martyn cites the example of DHL’s warehouse in Castleford. The site is probably his most successful workplace in terms of learning outcomes, with around

Good employers see the bigger picture and quickly realise that the union’s learning agenda generates positives that vastly outweigh any negatives. half of the 300-strong workforce regularly using the on-site learning centre. The site has a very active joint learning steering group, through which everything learning-related is discussed and agreed.

that learning will be arranged with minimal disruption to work. The ULRs also promote the vocational learning opportunities offered by the employer and help employees to access them, so enabling DHL to optimise the return on investment in training. The management also see the value in being seen as a good employer, both at the workplace and beyond, and that constructive relationships built at the steering group improve industrial relations generally.

This has proven to be a highly effective forum, which delivers benefits for both sides. For Usdaw the arrangement delivers excellent facilities and learning opportunities, while management can be assured

Employer engagement

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FBU learning grows with partnerships The Fire Brigades Union’s (FBU) National Learning Centre works in partnership with further education providers to deliver a range of courses and recognised qualifications in IT, maths, English and business and management, and vocational qualifications.

Courses can vary from short taster courses to extended programs of learning, which learners can work through at their own pace to achieve recognised, accredited qualifications.

All courses offer the option of learning at a local FBU learning centre, at home, or at work and at a time that suits the learner.

Claire Wealleans, who manages the National Fire Brigades Union Learning Centre based at West Hartford Community Fire Station in Northumberland, says: “I take great pride in delivering high quality learning provision for FBU members and their families, Fire and Rescue Service community learners, and ensuring that they have a positive learning experience.”

As the FBU’s National Officer for Education and Lifelong Learning, Sean Starbuck says: “The FBU has a proven track record in the promotion of education as a powerful resource that, when used, is a most powerful ally. We also understand the importance that education plays in the lives of our members at work and in our family and social lives.”

This commitment to learning proved invaluable when, in 2011, concerns began to be raised within Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) that the new national recruitment standards, applied to all fire and rescue services, were

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preventing the service from selecting the most suitable people to fill retained firefighter (part-time) posts.

The application forms were too onerous and some questions were unsuitable, eventually leading to an all-time low number of applicants.

Union engagement learning in the workplace and the community

In response, as Ivan Millican, Learning and Development Manager at NFRS, observes: “I commissioned our HR team to undertake a review of the national standards and produce a selection process that was fit for purpose for Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service, whilst preserving academic standards. The team

The FBU has a proven track record in the promotion of education as a powerful resource that, when used, is a most powerful ally. We also understand the importance that education plays in the lives of our members at work and in our family and social lives. produced a selection process model but concluded that any detraction from the national standards would need some kind of benchmark to demonstrate that the academic standards were being maintained.

“We approached the FBU learning centre to see if they could offer any assistance and they suggested benchmarking against functional skills. We took their advice and worked in partnership with the learning centre, and now functional skills are an integral part of Northumberland Fire and Rescue’s selection processes.

Ivan concludes: “Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service has developed a selection process in partnership with the learning centre which is in line with national recruitment standards and meets the government’s guidelines for attaining Level 2 qualifications. The process is applied to the initial selection of all operational posts: i.e. part-time, full-time and transferees from other fire services. Those applicants who are not deemed to be at Level 2 are offered support from the learning centre. Anecdotal evidence suggests that those who seek support, attain Level 2 and re-submit their Fire Service application.”

Lara Hindhaugh, learning delivery worker at Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS), works on the functional skills of new recruits in the fire service. She assesses functional skills and offers training to those falling short of the required standards. Lara also offers courses to existing staff and offers personalised one-to-one support by going out to stations.

One person who has benefited from Lara’s work is Graeme Cain, a new recruit from Berwick who applied in 2012, but failed application tests on the basis of his functional skills level.

Lara worked with him over the next year to bring him up to Level 2, and he is now on a training course to be a firefighter. Graeme recalls: “I went for the test but wasn’t up to scratch on my maths and English, so the Fire Service offered to help me out by enrolling me on a functional skills course. The best thing about it was that I could do the work in my own time – I was still working fulltime, so I usually did the work at my computer in the evenings.

“My tutor, Lara Hindhaugh, was really helpful too – she was always there to help out, at the end of a phone line, any time of the day or night. I worked hard and passed all the tests. I’m really grateful the Fire Service gave up their time and made the effort to help me. Now I’m finishing my firefighter training and looking forward to serving with the NFRS later this year.”

But the work of the FBU in promoting functional skills learning doesn’t stop there. Lorna Taylor, the FBU Learning Centre’s Skills for Life tutor, also puts her own skills to good use at the Blyth Resource and Initiative Centre (BRIC) – fulfilling the FBU’s ambition of positively using their influence in the wider community.

BRIC is a busy resource centre in the centre of Blyth. The centre was set up in 1983 in response to the rise in unemployment following the closure of many of the local mining and shipping industries, and after years of growth and change is now a busy, well used and valued community resource.

Through one-to-one and group workshops it supports individuals through their journey back into education or employment. The centre works with every client individually to provide the guidance and support they need to enable them to find and remain in employment.

The educational opportunities that BRIC now offer allow people to learn for pleasure, to improve skills and understanding, improve mental health, physical well-being, increase social inclusion and encourage companionship. By providing a nonmainstream learning environment it aims to reach learners who otherwise would not consider furthering their own personal development. A wide range of courses are available to accommodate learners from all backgrounds.

Employer engagement

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I went for the test but wasn’t up to scratch on my maths and English, so the Fire Service offered to help me out by enrolling me on a functional skills course. The best thing about it was that I could do the work in my own time – I was still working full-time, so I usually did the work at my computer in the evenings.

Lorna, maths and English tutor at BRIC, says: “Over the past two years the FBU have engaged with the delivery of maths and English, from Entry Level to Level 2 learning, at the Eric Tolhurst Centre in Blyth, which houses BRIC. “I am the maths and English tutor responsible for students reaching their full potential. This ultimately means passing a qualification to demonstrate their ability to learn and therefore increasing their skills to move on to employment, further education or the voluntary sector.

“I have found that the abilities of students vary and have in certain cases supported a mature adult who does not have the literacy skills required to function in everyday life. This inhibits their ability to gain employment and affects their self-esteem.

“In one particular case, a mature adult had behavioural problems in addition to alcohol abuse. Although the FBU was not in a position to support this person due to the learning platform we use being too complex, I had worked with students in the past that could not read and write and decided that being part of a class was important to this individual’s selfworth. This student, after intervention on a one-to-one basis where possible, is now able to read and decipher

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everyday words and symbols and can read a newspaper for pleasure, although the text they read is limited.

They are now attending class and have completed an initial assessment for Entry Level 1. Their behaviour, social skills and confidence has greatly improved and I believe their alcohol consumption had reduced.”

Other students reflect on experiences from school which have had an impact on their career choice and some have gained Level 2 qualifications in both maths and English and transferred to further education.

Some of the students have ADHD, mental health issues, short-term memory problems and display symptoms of dyslexia. Without the combination of educational exposure to maths and English and the support of the social aspect of the structures within the BRIC their lives would be very different in this uncertain economic climate.

Keith Knox, Entry Level maths learner at the centre, said: “Jobcentre Plus referred me to the BRIC (Blyth Resource & Initiative Centre). I had a skills gap for the job I wanted, which was to measure blinds. It’s been a good experience. I can now use a computer and have more confidence in my maths skills, which will help with looking for a job.”

Union engagement learning in the workplace and the community

“I’m not sure if it has changed my life – I am still unemployed – but I have more confidence in my ability to use maths. And it should help me prepare for future work, as I have more skills and I am now studying for an English qualification.”

Daniel Bragg, functional skills Level 2 English learner at the centre, said: “I wanted to improve my English skills as well as learn new methods of writing. I was introduced to the FBU learning class by BRIC where I am a volunteer. The online system was ok.

Most of the work was plain sailing although I did need support from my tutor with aspects of spelling and punctuation.

“My general level of English and ability to proof read has improved and raised my confidence. It looks great on my CV as I can show employers that I am capable of achievement.”

Trevor Shanahan, FBU National Union Learning Fund Manager, said “The FBU Learning Centre offers vital support to NFRS and the wider fire and rescue service communities.

Our partnership working with employers, local and national, is central in providing courses and qualifications as we continue to improve the skill levels of firefighters and support community learners.”

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english and maths learning

Unionlearn works with unions to increase access to English and maths learning. Developing English and maths skills helps people to do their jobs, run a home, manage money and enjoy a better social life. Unionlearn engages with a large number of stakeholders and campaigns, such as Quick Reads and inspiring people to be Maths Champions, to raise awareness of the opportunities available to build English and maths skills in the workplace and in the community.

Functional skills are the updated framework and qualifications for English, maths and ICT. They make a strong link between the skills needed for reading, writing, speaking and listening and maths,

and the application of these skills in real-life contexts. Trade unions, learning centres and Union Learning Fund (ULF) funded projects are increasingly replacing Skills for Life qualifications with functional skills.

While alternatives to functional skills, such as GCSE and stepping stones qualifications exist, functional skills are often the most appropriate programmes for the workplace and for individual learners.

More information on unionlearn support can be found at: www.unionlearn.org.uk/our-workand-projects/maths-english-ict

Promoting love of reading and creative writing with UNISON Melissa Brown knows the value of literacy better than most, having worked for seven years as a library assistant before becoming lifelong learning project worker for UNISON’s Norfolk County Branch last year. No wonder she jumped at the chance when Quick Reads offered to provide the books to set up a reading group at City College, Norwich.

“At the time, I had no idea who would become a member of our book group or where they would work: we put up posters and stewards sent emails until people came forward to take part,” Melissa recalls.

The reading group now includes a student adviser, an administrator, a teacher, a help desk adviser and an admissions clerk. As the members came from all corners of the college, Melissa carefully chose the venue to ensure it would be easy for everyone to access.

“Many are already readers, but they love Quick Reads as they can read them rapidly to fit in with their busy lives,” she says. We have been lucky that the group is very encouraging and supportive of each others’ opinions of the books,” she adds.

“The members have a passion for reading but before joining the group, didn’t always take the time to read.

Because of the length of the Quick Read titles, they are able to make time to read and reflect on the characters and message of the book from their perspective within the group.”

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Because of their short length and engaging stories, Quick Reads mean our members don’t have to struggle to find time to read: instead they can be sucked into a book during their lunch hour and just enjoy it.

This is just one of three main projects Melissa has been working on in her role as UNISON’s lifelong learning project worker in Norfolk, encouraging people to take up reading and writing and take pleasure from books.

Union engagement learning in the workplace and the community

At the outset of Quick Reads, in late 2012, five people joined up, with seven new members recruited in early 2013. They now meet once a month and have also set up a social media site for sharing reviews. The profile of participants has generally been older – in their 50s or 60s.

World Book Day presented another valuable opportunity for her literacy work: in March 2013 she received a donation of 1000 books from the charity, Healthy Planet. The giveaway was promoted within Norfolk Council and 300 people took away 500 books, with the remainder earmarked for use in May’s Adult Learners’ Week.

Melissa feels all these strands of her work “highly beneficial as they promote communication among the Council’s workforce, build people’s confidence and bring people together.”

“I think the most rewarding part of my project has been seeing the positive change in people’s literacy levels.

Each week you see learners that are able to write a little bit more and are happier to discuss their work. By watching a group write you see how their initial ideas grow and develop into their finished story.”

Since January 2013 she has also helped to run a creative writing group at Norfolk County Council with between 7 and 13 people, aged generally in their 30s. It includes all levels, from confident writers to those taking their first steps. Melissa is urging UNISON to promote this initiative more widely.

All of this information is helpfully brought together by Melissa in UNISON Norfolk’s Lifelong Learning Corner blog (http://learningcornern fkunison.blogspot.co.uk) which carries updates on all these activities.

Coming together during a reorganisation of City College, the book group has given its members a safe place to escape from the stresses of restructuring and allowed staff to form friendships with their colleagues and offer each other support. In addition, says Melissa:“As we have all read the Quick Reads titles gifted to us, I have now set the group up with a reading group card at the library so they can help support their local library by borrowing future titles.”

Melissa believes reading exposes people to new ideas and gives them an insight into other people’s lives, as well as improving literacy. “Because of their short length and engaging stories, Quick Reads mean our members don’t have to struggle to find time to read: instead they can be sucked into a book during their lunch hour and just enjoy it.”

“Reading of all types is a useful form of learning we should encourage all our members to do,” she says.

Group member Joan Girling, Student Employer Partnership Coordinator at City College, Norwich, says she enjoys the Quick Reads, which have spurred her on to read more titles by different authors. “It’s also great to have a discussion on what other people think and with people you may not see every day. It’s a nice break too.”

English and maths learning

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Reachout and learn functional skills GMB Reachout is a Union Learning Fund (ULF) project, based in the North West, aiming to develop learning programmes through union learning representatives (ULRs) and in workplaces, as well as the wider community. A large part of the learning programme has featured English and maths. While the project had previously used the adult literacy and numeracy qualifications, in 2012 project staff recognised that the new functional skills framework and qualifications were the way to go.

We had heard the usual scare stories, about how difficult the transition was and how it might be received by learners. But, in all honesty, there were not nearly as many hurdles as we had expected.

Senior Project Worker, Dave Flanagan, explains: “We had heard the usual scare stories, about how difficult the transition was and how it might be received by learners. But, in all honesty, there were not nearly as many hurdles as we had expected.”

From the start, Reachout saw the attraction of functional skills as a new qualification, in the way that they used the concept of applying skills in real environments. They could see not only how this might appeal to employers and learners in the workplace, where real-life contexts were often the trigger for setting up English and maths learning. Functional skills could also

be applied in community settings, by immediately making the learning real and relevant.

The project made use of their links with a local community training provider, St Antony’s Centre in Trafford Park. Project workers sat in on the training provider’s planning and training sessions on functional skills for its staff. As a result they got to know how this provider was tackling the recruitment, motivation, learning and final assessment issues.

Reachout initially piloted functional skills in one workplace, Crown Paints, and two community programmes, in Oldham and Accrington. Crown Paints welcomed the closer linkage of the English and maths work to manufacturing, and so functional skills has taken off. Equally, in the two community centres, learners were motivated by how work on their English and maths could help with benefits issues, understanding online shopping offers, searching for information – tackling the everyday consequences of austerity.

Many of the anticipated problems did not materialise. For example, the longer time required for learners to get to the final functional skills assessment has not been an obstacle to workplace courses – employers’ commitment and agreements already in place have been used to implement functional skills programmes. Many of the learning resources and approaches fit just as well for functional skills, with new resources coming online all the time.

English and maths learning

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Grab the opportunity that functional skills gives you with both hands. You could see functional skills as just another ‘change’. But they are here to stay and… they bring major benefits to learners, employers and the wider community.

By spring 2013, just over 10 per cent of the project achievements in English and maths are for functional skills. The number of centres offering functional skills has grown to six, and is likely to triple in the coming months. new project partnerships with centres such as Haslingden Community Links have opened up opportunities to use functional skills with childcare staff, single parents and older learners. Other workplaces engaging with functional skills include John Lennon Airport and several local authorities in the region.

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Functional skills are here to stay. Dave’s advice is: “grab the opportunity that functional skills gives you with both hands. you could see functional skills as just another ‘change’. But they are here to stay and we, through unionlearn initiatives, can help. Functional skills are a big change, but the way I see it, they bring major benefits to learners, employers and the wider community.”

Union engagement LEARnIng In THE WORkpLACE AnD THE COMMUnITy

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Union learning centres

Trade union led learning centres have established their place as the frontrunners of workplace learning.

They welcome all learners, not only in the workplace but also by reaching out to the friends and family of employees and the community too.

Learning centres are an integral part of the lifelong learning agenda. They help to create a positive learning culture and they widen participation, building bridges between informal learning, maths, English and ICT as well as vocational learning.

Learning centres offer a friendly contact point to unions, and a base for union learning reps to anchor their activity. Unionlearn helps learning centres to access teaching materials and share best practice. A partnership with the employer underpins a successful learning centre and this is achieved by making effective learning agreements. The union learning centre directory provides contact details for over 400 union-led learning centres: www.unionlearningcentres.org.uk

Crunching numbers at McVitie’s Estimates place the cost to the country of poor basic skills at £10 billion a year. This takes account of the effect of lower incomes, reduced productivity, poorer health and the cost of benefits and welfare services. The cost of poor numeracy and literacy skills for a company employing 1,000 people has been estimated at £626,000 per year.

For organisations employing 51–100 employees the cost is estimated to be nearer £108,000. Higher earnings are also correlated to good basic skills.

English and maths skills, and builds on the strong relationship between the union, Usdaw, and the company.

Over 70 per cent of the 600-strong workforce are now involved in learning. A learning centre based in the canteen offers a wide range of courses – of which literacy and numeracy are the most popular.

The workforce can also engage in vocational training, language and IT courses. The centre has also created a reading culture with ties to Stockport library and the Six Book Challenge.

The Learn 4 U Centre at McVitie’s looked at how to engage with the government’s strategy on both the digital divide and addressing the

McVitie’s Manchester tried to set up a learning centre in the late nineties.

However this was a company initiative with little union involvement and did

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Union engagement learning in the workplace and the community

not really get off the ground. Usdaw approached McVitie’s in early 2007 about setting up a learning centre and, after negotiations, the Learn 4 U centre opened in early 2008.

After a time it did however become clear that each of the United Biscuits sites were working in a different way and, in some instances, not delivering successful lifelong learning. So in early 2012, the company approached members of Usdaw’s Learning Committee and the on-site convenor to request their help and support in identifying what good practice looked like.

The CLF is a great initiative for the sustaining of learning centres; it puts a firm foundation for the present and more importantly the future.

It was agreed that this would be a good opportunity to not only mainstream the established learning agenda at Manchester across the company group but also to enhance Usdaw’s approach around learning and organising.

The Learning and Development team was asked to visit another Usdaw learning centre to see how other employers worked with unions around the lifelong learning agenda.

This was agreed and a visit to Shop Direct’s National Distribution Centre in Shaw, North Manchester, was arranged which offered the chance to showcase a centre where the agenda had been sustained for 11 years and where the relationship between union and employer was one of partnership.

A relationship has now been forged between the Learning Committee at Manchester and the National Learning and Development team with future plans in place to deliver a more unified approach and better lines of communication.

Julia Baldwin, Lifelong Learning Project Worker for Usdaw, said: “Without the organised approach to learning between the ULR coordinator, team of ULRs and the support and engagement of the onsite convenor, I am certain that this opportunity would not have arose.

The team work hard to keep learning at the forefront of the partnership with the company on an on-going basis.”

McVitie’s has to date supported hundreds of learners through their union learning projects and set up a Collective Learning Fund (CLF) to make learning more affordable.

CLFs are essentially pots of resource, money or time for instance, with which employers, workers, learning providers and unions jointly invest in efforts to deliver courses and training for learners.

As the lead union learning representative at McVitie’s, Jonathan Waterhouse has introduced systematic initial assessment and individualised training programmes for learners to follow to prepare them appropriately for the English and maths qualifications and for the employer’s test. Before this partnership started, employees would have had no preparation for the test, and it was a barrier to employment and progression for many. Jonathan says: “The CLF is a great initiative for the sustaining of learning centres; it puts a firm foundation for the present and more importantly the future.”

The learning centre offers a wide range of courses with the biggest take-up in numeracy and literacy.

Employees can also do vocational training, language courses and IT. All ULRs have gained IAG NVQ and the centre has achieved the Matrix accreditation. Recently the centre was also the recipient of unionlearn’s Quality Award.

The learning centre has a range of resources: internet broadband, modern desk top computers, overhead projector and screen.

A number of language courses are loaded onto the computers, and there is a study corner with large table and chairs. The centre provides all sorts of programmes including languages, IT and guitar lessons to employees that want to take part. Funding for training comes in to a collective learning fund from the business, unionlearn and the union Usdaw. A steering committee made up of employees, union reps and managers decide how the funding is distributed.

English and maths learning is delivered through the on-site learning centre by a company called Work Solutions – a private provider. The tutor works on-site from within the learning centre on a Tuesday from 12.30 to 17.00 and Wednesday 09.00 to 17.00. The tutor’s hours may now need to be increased as there are currently 25 learners on programmes and this is not enough hours for the tutor to see all of their students.

One-to-one sessions with the tutor are vital to the success of the programme as it is self-managed, individual learning rather than group courses. All learners enrolled on to an English or maths course make a convenient appointment with the tutor to attend a one-to-one session.

They can discuss their progress and any problems they may have, share work that they have already completed and agree the work for the following week. Learners do have to carry out their learning and attend their appointments with the tutor

Union learning centres

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Workers feel inclined to stay because they are pleased that the company has chosen to invest in developing their skills. in their own time, but the times are flexible and dependent on a person’s shift patterns.

Jonathan Waterhouse observes: “Having an onsite learning centre is unique and we are very fortunate learners don’t have to pay for resources. This promotes affordable learning for all. No-one is left out – something that is at the heart of Usdaw.”

“Workers feel inclined to stay because they are pleased that the company has chosen to invest in developing their skills. It also gives a chance for progression within the company, and new opportunities are being offered in the form of the creation of the Advanced Team Member role, to release engineers from some of their more routine functions.”

The employer has been very involved and supportive right from the beginning with the signing of the learning agreement and the support given to ULRs. McVitie’s Training Coordinator Lesley Flood acknowledges that the “increasingly sophisticated audit and customer requirements need an educated and proactive rather than passive workforce.” She sees the partnership between the unions and the company as “a win-win situation for the company, the staff and the unions.” McVitie’s, like many food

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manufacturing companies, needs its workforce to have basic literacy and numeracy skills to become machine operatives or to be promoted to other roles. It is a requirement for health and safety reasons – employees need to be able to read and respond to instructions on health and safety as a minimum.

Questioned about why the business would invest in training for employees that wasn’t directly relevant to job roles, Loretta Smith from McVitie’s HR responded: “We invest in employees so that they can reinvest in our business.”

Union engagement learning in the workplace and the community

The most obvious benefit for new members of the McVitie’s workforce is that passing the literacy and numeracy tests means they can be taken on as an employee, rather than remaining as an agency worker.

Literacy and numeracy skills also increase employees’ employability, but also – crucially for the company – increases their sense of loyalty as they feel McVitie’s has chosen to invest in developing their skills.

One learner who has benefited from the centre’s work is Wayne Robinson, who said: “The learning centre has given me the encouragement to improve my maths in a way that is enjoyable.”

POA learning centre on community journey

The Prison Officers Association (POA) learning division coordinates trade union education and lifelong learning opportunities for all prison and secure hospital employees, members of associated unions, friends, family and local communities. This includes training and development for union reps as well as personal and career development courses ranging from English and maths through to professional qualifications and apprenticeships.

In late 2012, the POA entered into a partnership with a thriving children’s centre in the middle of a local community in Doncaster. They are now helping a range of community-based groups to access learning there.

The Adult and Community Learning Centre based at Intake and Belle Vue Children’s Centre was officially opened in March 2013. Michelle, a volunteer, parent and learner at the Centre said, “This is a great addition to the services we provide for the people within our community.”

At the opening, Ailsa Johnson, Children’s Centre Manager, welcomed everyone to the Children’s Centre and spoke of the journey undertaken to make the learning centre a reality.

Phil Kelly, POA Learning Manager, spoke on behalf of POA Learning, commending the opportunity of working within the Children’s Centre

The aim was to raise the self-esteem and confidence of the ladies attending but in a creative way rather than delivering a course on self-esteem. We made bath salts, scones, tactile socks, dream catchers, and candles while discussing all of life’s challenges!

Union learning centres

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We try to be creative in our delivery of English and maths – real projects or tasks that use English and maths in context. and with the local community. A range of guests gave their support and praised the new initiative.

The opening of the learning centre is the beginning of a new and innovative partnership between pOA Learning and the Intake and Belle Vue Children’s Centre. The initiative was first tentatively discussed in September 2012 by Alison Manion, pOA Learning Coordinator, and Ailsa Johnson. Discussions soon became a reality and Julie James was appointed as the Learning Centre Manager in november. The Community Room within the Children’s Centre was reorganised and became the learning centre, learning resources were purchased, wi-fi installed and ten new laptops delivered.

Members of the local community were asked to suggest learning ideas that might interest them and new local partnerships were forged. The partnerships aim to break down barriers to learning by responding to the needs of the local community in a local venue. With this in mind staff within the Children’s Centre work closely with the Learning Centre Manager, sharing ideas from centre users so that relevant learning can be identified for local people. Learning is then offered within the centre itself or learners are signposted to other more relevant venues.

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At the time of the official opening, accredited learning in English, maths, ICT, ECDL, and first aid were all available in the centre. A partnership already established between pOA Learning and Skills network provided a range of distance learning packages and bespoke non-accredited learning opportunities were developed by Julie James, for example, Fun on the Field and Time for Me. Other adult and community learning opportunities include Infant Massage, parenting, Cooking on a Budget, preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector, Supporting Children with ADHD, and Food Hygiene. Free internet access sessions are also available on a dropin basis.

Julie James, pOA Learning Centre Manager, said: “The work of the centre has progressed to include a wider range of accredited learning using pOA links to the Skills network. We offer bespoke, non-accredited learning devised in response to the needs of learners, such as Time for Me. The aim was to raise the self-esteem and confidence of the ladies attending but in a creative way rather than delivering a course on self-esteem. We made bath salts, scones, tactile socks, dream catchers, and candles while discussing all of life’s challenges!

“We try to be creative in our delivery of English and maths – real projects or tasks that use English and maths in context.”

“The centre is able to support people who haven’t had, or been able to take up, opportunities to access adult education before. We believe this works because we are giving them learning opportunities in a place where they already feel at ease and in a non-threatening way

Union engagement LEARnIng In THE WORkpLACE AnD THE COMMUnITy

that they can access. They already have a relationship with staff and trust what they are saying. So it is an easy step to move into the learning centre. The challenge is to maintain this relationship of trust and create learning that is different, appealing and relevant.

“Relationships are maintained by accepting the ever-changing lifestyles of the community and hence the learners in the centre. We have to understand and respond to non-attendance of sessions as a result of child illness, bereavement, non-payment of benefits, Job Centre requests and the day-to-day trials of life. IAg can turn into mentoring to build confidence and provide small steps to success while increasing aspirations. We try to develop a ‘can do’ culture!”

Tracy kendall, a learner at the Centre, said: “I’ve been attending the centre for over 10 years, since it was a Sure Start centre. I didn’t get gCSEs, so recently began working on my English and maths. I’ve now passed Level 2, and I’m working on the next stage, and getting my gCSEs. It’s been really helpful having just one tutor for all my classes, we’ve built up a relationship and I can fit work in around caring for my children. The learning’s flexible and I can always contact my tutor online with any questions. It’s a great support, and the centre provides a really friendly environment, with a canteen and lots of other facilities.”

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digital inclusion

In a Google world of buzzing BlackBerries, non-stop Tweeting and social networking sites, it is difficult to imagine life without the send button.

But for eight million people, cyberspace is still a distant galaxy.

According to the latest research, eight million adults in the UK do not use the internet. These adults – young and old, in work and unemployed – face growing disadvantages in a world that increasingly uses online tools to offer support services or ways to save money.

Unionlearn is committed to helping people overcome the obstacles to internet access. Unionlearn is working with the 400-plus trade union workplace and community learning centres, the network of 26,000 union learning reps and a range of partners at national, regional and local level to reach out to employees, families, and communities who need help to develop their IT skills and to access the internet.

Find out more on digital learning at: www.unionlearn.org.uk/our-workand-projects/maths-english-ict/ digital-learning-ict

Manchester goes digital with Go ON Unionlearn is supporting and developing Go ON Places Digital Inclusion campaigns as part of its efforts to reach the many millions of adults in the UK who have never accessed the internet, the vast majority of whom are socially excluded older adults, those in low paid employment or unemployed.

From October 2013, 80 per cent of those claiming welfare benefits through Universal Credit will be expected to claim or make changes to their claims online. Trade unions and ULRs have a key role to play in getting those people online and developing their ICT skills.

Go ON is a national campaign to promote digital inclusion. The key focus is to bring the benefits of the internet to every individual, organisation and community in the UK. Local partnerships are being encouraged to plan local action, including recruiting digital champions.

Manchester City Council is working on the Manchester partnership with a range of organisations, including unionlearn, Manchester College, the Chamber of Commerce, the Manchester Digital trade association, social housing organisations, local digital and creative networks, including the Manchester Digital Lab (MadLab) and a wide range of voluntary and community organisations.

As part of their support for the partnership, leading local organisations are pledging to support Go ON Manchester and are encouraging their staff and users to become digital champions.

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The benefits of digital inclusion can be life transforming: ǃǃ Small businesses that go online grow twice as fast as their competitors. ǃǃ Households save up to £560 per year shopping and paying bills online. ǃǃ The estimated increased lifetime earnings of all children being online in Manchester is £78.5m. ǃǃ The estimated increased lifetime earnings of the unemployed going online in Manchester is £6.7m. ǃǃ Government services are going online. Residents and businesses can make a payment, report a problem and request a service, anytime and anywhere they want, with all the convenience that brings.

Union engagement learning in the workplace and the community

ǃǃ Online transactions will keep Council costs down and improve efficiencies, so encouraging customers to do it online benefits the Council substantially and sustainably. ǃǃ People will have a personalised, self-service web experience with a breadth of localised services at their fingertips.

The Go ON Manchester digital champions campaign is aimed at everyone who feels they have something to offer. It aims to help people go online in the first place, help local businesses to improve their online presence and enable people, businesses and community organisations to develop new skills and capacities.

They have been particularly interested in getting organisations – businesses, public bodies and community groups

Go ON can help them access re-serviced, cheap computers, and direct to them to learning centres, libraries and courses where more help is available.

One of the commonest things I hear is: ‘why didn’t I do this earlier? It’s not as hard as I feared’.

– directly involved in volunteering to be digital champions: people from all working backgrounds making a commitment to be engaged, nominating themselves and members of their workplace, organisation or network to become digital champions.

They run workshops, including training and networking events, to support digital champions. MDDA (Manchester Digital Development Agency) is currently working with the digital and creative network to develop these resources, as part of the Manchester Living Lab. This is all about enabling digital champions to pass on their skills as well as gaining access to new opportunities for themselves.

Dave Carter, Head of MDDA, says: “Manchester City Council is committed to promoting digital inclusion and ensuring that all residents in the city have the widest possible access to online services and applications. This is at the core of the city’s new Digital Strategy for Manchester and the city’s role as Chair of the European Connected Smart Cities Network. This underpins the Go ON Manchester campaign and the collaborative work we are doing with unionlearn and other partners. The city council believes that this partnership will ensure that Go ON Manchester supports residents in developing both the skills and the aspirations to be fully engaged in the digital world

To date, 400 digital champions have been recruited, with people out on the street campaigning and support from local student unions.

A particular focus has been the area of social housing, with social landlords keen to get residents digitally included. As Steve Lynch, UNISON member and ULR Coordinator at Manchester City Council, says: “Supporting tenants is particularly important with the introduction of Universal Credit, which is why we are focusing on areas of high density social housing, like Wythenshawe, providing courses to residents with support from the area’s digital champions.” The campaign is well underway, and picking up momentum all the time, as people appreciate the financial savings and convenience moving online can bring.

Samantha Gibson a working mum with two sons from Harpurhey in north Manchester relies on benefits to top up her earnings as she is on just above minimum pay and her husband works full time. She said: “Thanks to my 16-year-old son, Liam, signing up to be a digital champion I heard about the Go ON Manchester scheme. I knew that this year I would have to claim benefits on line but was unsure how to do this even though I do access the internet for social media. I have always been worried about security and so Facebook was the only site I went on. We sat down together and Liam spent just a couple of hours showing me the Universal Credit website and the forms and how to complete them.

Liam convinced me that shopping on line was very safe nowadays and showed me how to set up a PayPal account and I now happily shop on line, have my groceries delivered and use comparison sites for insurance and utilities. I am amazed how much I have saved. I regret not having done this sooner. I now have the confidence to begin to plan our holidays and book my own flights and make transfer arrangements.

Plus if I do get stuck I have a digital champion in the house.”

Steve, who has taken the lead in developing Go ON Manchester, adds: “People are panicking about getting online, what with the welfare changes underway. Go ON can help them access re-serviced, cheap computers, and direct to them to learning centres, libraries and courses where more help is available. One of the commonest things I hear is: ‘why didn’t I do this earlier? It’s not as hard as I feared’.”

Councillor Nigel Murphy, Executive Member for the Environment on Manchester City Council, has said: “I would encourage every business in Manchester to join this important initiative. Digital champions can do anything from helping people who have never been online before, to helping colleagues develop their internet skills, to working with other local organisations to enhance their web presence.”

and use this new capacity to enhance their quality of life, employment opportunities and well-being.”

Digital inclusion

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Many of us think we don’t have much knowledge, but what we do know can be real treasure to someone else, and a catalyst for their own learning. We take much of what we do every day for granted – I wanted to pass on my skills.

Surveyor and Prospect member, Mick Upfield

Prospect digital champions generate inclusion Online households can save £560 a year by paying for bills and doing their shopping online. This is just one of the benefits of being online – people can also save time, stay in touch, find jobs and explore interests.

The present government has committed to making the UK the technology hub of Europe – by investing in the roll-out of super-fast broadband and transforming public services to be ‘digital by default.’

Digital champions (DC) and the Go ON model were launched in 2012 as vehicles to help people who have never used the internet to get online.

There are a staggering 7.8 million adults in the UK who’ve never used the internet, and 90 per cent of these know someone who does. If we all took the time to show someone the benefits of being online, and to pass our IT skills on, we’d be very close to enabling everyone in the UK to enjoy life online. That’s why unionlearn is mobilising a network of digital champions in trade unions to inspire, encourage and support people to use the internet.

Digital champions: ǃǃ support people who don’t know about the benefits of the internet to give it a try ǃǃ point people to where they can access free internet training, or help them get started themselves ǃǃ help people to get set up with IT, including telling them about accessibility features ǃǃ donate spare IT equipment.

Prospect submitted a proposal to the Union Learning Fund (ULF) in 2012 to run a pilot bespoke digital

This exciting, bespoke pilot DC training programme has enabled our reps and members to enhance their own IT skills and then go on to share their knowledge with colleagues, friends and family. champion (DC) training programme.

This was agreed, with the objective of recruiting and training 10 digital champions to assist colleagues, friends, family and community groups.

Two members of Prospect have subsequently been active in very different ways as digital champions, helping to bridge the digital divide.

As one of the ULRs for Prospect working within the British Library as a content development coordinator, Marjorie Newson was well aware of the importance of the digital inclusion agenda. She decided to get involved as a voluntary digital champion following a Learning at Work day in 2012.

She created and built the digital champions UK Pinterest site (http:// pinterest.com/digitalchampsuk), which offers information about new technology and gadgets, learning, trends, families online, safety online and much more. The site is an online tool for anyone looking for information on how to do things online, offering an archive of information for those with basic up to advanced skills, through a range of accessible articles, images and videos. Other ULRs are free to contribute to the resource.

From a launch at the end of January 2013, just over two months later the site already boasts 244 followers, with widespread positive feedback from users.

Digital inclusion

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Further information and publicity for digital champions Uk has been generated via the British Library ULR blog (http://ulrs-at-bl.blogspot. co.uk) run by the joint union learning representative group at the British Library, located in Boston Spa and London. The blog provides information on learning events, courses, workshops, and training.

Marjorie has received valuable support while developing the site from prospect’s nikki Simpson, who leads the digital champion workstream. nikki commented: “This exciting, bespoke pilot DC training programme has enabled our reps and members to enhance their own IT skills and then go on to share their knowledge with colleagues, friends and family. So far they have helped over 250 learners get online in a sixmonth period, an achievement they should be very proud of.”

Away from his day job as a surveyor for Ordnance Survey, Mick Upfield has become involved in helping colleagues, friends and family successfully get online, as well as volunteering with Age Uk. As a member of the national Executive Committee for prospect, Mick has a longstanding interest in education and the role of ULRs. So it seemed a natural step to join an innovative pilot programme to become a digital champion, which he finished in February 2013. As Mick says, he got involved because he “wanted to help people. Many of us think we don’t have much knowledge, but what we do know can be real treasure to someone else, and a catalyst for their own learning. We take much of what we do every day for granted – I wanted to pass on my skills.”

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It was at this point that he became aware of a call from the charity Age Uk for volunteers to help older people get online. The result so far has been initial sessions run in the Oxfordshire region, with more planned. As Mick is employed full time, he has to fit the volunteering in during lunch breaks, evenings or when on leave.

Mick finds the work inspirational and extremely worthwhile – “opening people’s minds to the possibilities of the digital world.”

With so many organisations requesting that documents be completed online these days, it is good that older people are taught how to fill out forms and are advised on how to complete tasks like shopping online.

Sessions are run at Oxfordshire County Council centres, often using BBC exercises designed to help people get online. Age Uk’s pat Bennett commented: “Having tutors teaching the over 50s to use computers is very rewarding as it helps with loneliness. Often older people’s families have left the areas they used to live in as a family and there is little contact with those they have left behind, so learning how to use a computer for email and Skype helps with that contact. Also, with so many organisations requesting that documents be completed online these days, it is good that older people are taught how to fill out forms and are advised on how to complete tasks like shopping online.”

In addition, a digitally themed conference was held for those reps and members interested in the digital agenda. The event was attended by 37 people, including six colleagues from pCS (public and Commercial Services Union).

Both Mick and Marjorie have made valuable use of prospect’s pilot digital champion training programme.

During the six-month programme, the DCs worked with colleagues, members, family, friends and community groups helping people to get online and/or improve their digital knowledge. The programme also provided continuing professional development opportunities to experienced ULRs, who contribute a lot of time to the union movement.

Union engagement LEARnIng In THE WORkpLACE AnD THE COMMUnITy

Future plans include training a further cohort of members to become digital champions and using the skills of the existing DCs to further engage with disadvantaged learners through workplaces, charities and community groups.

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Community learning

Unionlearn’s mission is to ‘transform workers’ life chances through lifelong learning’ and part of this work has been to assist trade unions to reach out into their communities. Over 100 of the 400-plus union learning centres are open to friends, families and communities. Unions such as the NUM, FBU and Unite all have strong ‘brands’ within communities who respect and trust the union to help them return to learning. TUC surveys show that union representatives were eight times more likely than others to become active in their communities.

that are developing learning champions and advocates in nonunionised workplaces. ULRs are now working together with community learning champions in reaching out to disadvantaged groups in the workplace and local community, enhancing learning opportunities, sharing resources and approaches and learning from each other.

Unionlearn is working with the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) to develop and support community learning champions and even more recently those organisations

www.unionlearn.org.uk/ publications/reachingcommunities-communitylearning-toolkit

Unionlearn’s ‘Reaching communities – the community learning toolkit’ offers more ideas, resources and information:

Switching on communities to energy saving Support officers from South West unionlearn have been linking into a national initiative run by Citizens Advice which aims to help people cut household bills by switching energy providers and saving energy at home.

The CAB’s Energy Best Deal (EBD) campaign has been supported by the energy regulator, Ofgem, and major energy companies since 2008. It involves delivering short, one hour, training sessions which highlight the savings that can be made by switching provider and becoming more energy aware. Sessions are aimed at low income consumers and front-line staff who work with people at risk of fuel poverty. These can be sign-posted to a range of further help with issues such as fuel debt, benefits entitlement and energy efficiency.

Though aimed at reducing household bills, the lessons learned are easily transferred to cutting costs for workplaces and community organisations.

Rob Garrett, unionlearn Senior Union Support Officer, contacted Citizens Advice in the South West to explore ways of becoming involved with EBD and delivering sessions in workplaces. This resulted in two sessions being delivered to workers at Babcock Marine Appledore in Devon.

Rob said: “Energy Best Deal is a good way to increase awareness of saving energy costs. With potential savings of £500 per household it is like a pay rise, and something that unions and members were keen to get involved with. We made sure we held the Babcock sessions in the union’s learning centre, which had the added bonus of bringing workers into the centre who hadn’t used it before

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and promoting the other learning opportunities on offer there.”

Darren Cloke is a union learning rep (ULR) at Babcock and said of the sessions: “There has been a lot of good feedback. The guys are all talking about it, and when that happens you know it’s been worthwhile!”

Rob added: “The initial sessions drew down funding from Citizens Advice, money which will go towards the learning centre and future courses.

This funding finished at the end of March, however Citizens Advice have

Union engagement learning in the workplace and the community

said that we can use the materials they have developed to run sessions in other workplaces and beyond.”

This work has already started and fellow Union Support Officer, Keith Hatch, has delivered sessions at Dorset Healthcare as part of Climate Week and for Yeovil Colleges Fresh Start project. There are also future sessions in the pipeline with UNISON care workers in Dorset and CWU (Communication Workers Union) members in Swindon.

Energy Best Deal is a good way to increase awareness of saving energy costs. With potential savings of £500 per household it is like a pay rise, and something that unions and members were keen to get involved with.

Keith said: “The Energy Best Deal sessions are ideal for ULRs as they are short and can be run in a lunch break. All the materials are there and ready for use. Each branch would probably want to tailor them slightly to suit their own members, but unionlearn staff would be available to help with this.”

“By ULRs working on these sessions they can support their fellow workers, save money on bills and become more engaged with workplace learning, roll out the ideas into the wider community and link into other initiatives like Maths Champions. All in all this has been a great opportunity.”

The community links that Energy Best Deal can develop were an important aspect when support officers were thinking about becoming involved with the scheme.

The session that was run in conjunction with local Quality Award provider, Yeovil College, was as part of their Fresh Start Job Club, which aims to support older unemployed workers and young people build up skills needed to find work. The EBD session helped by encouraging discussion of how they could save money, explore new ideas in work though Green Skills and look at functional skills like maths and IT in a practical way. Yeovil College was pleased with the way the morning went and are looking at further sessions in the future.

South West unionlearn support officers are planning more EBD sessions that will increase the community aspect. They are talking to social housing groups about this, along with the digital impact of the Welfare Reform act, following a major unionlearn conference in Bridgwater at the beginning of the year, and have attended an event organised

by Dorset Energy Adice Centre highlighting fuel poverty across the county to housing and community groups.

The next event being planned is a session with Learning With Care, a UNISON project funded by the Union Learning Fund (ULF) which is working with the care sector across Dorset to improve training and recruit union learning reps in non-unionised workplaces. The session will be for a group of new ULRs and the plan is for them to use the Energy Best Deal materials to pass on what they have learned to colleagues and clients at work and in the community.

Amanda Brown, Learning With Care Project Worker, said: “The reason for holding an energy workshop is because the project works with low paid workers, including some single parents, struggling to pay for fuel and keep their families warm. High fuel costs also have an impact on those living in rented accommodation where damp for example can lead to more heating being used than may have been necessary.”

“The other side of this is that as we are working with care workers who make home visits to the elderly and vulnerable, by training these workers in switching providers and saving energy they can use those skills to support clients in saving money and heating their homes more efficiently.”

“Anything we can do to assist families and workers alongside educating people about conserving energy can only be beneficial to us all.”

At the recent South West unionlearn conference in Exeter delegates agreed. Rob and Keith ran three packed sessions on EBD, with a lot of interest for sessions to be run for ULRs to roll out to members.

Regional Manager Helen Cole summed up the initiative: “The links that have been developed through the work unionlearn in the South West has been doing around Energy Best Deal show that union learning not only plays a vital role in supporting employees and developing skills in the workplace, but that these skills can be rolled out into the wider community.”

“These sessions help people through difficult times by cutting bills and saving energy. They have benefits for their health and well-being and for the wider environment though reducing carbon emissions.”

To find out more about EBD check out the Citizens Advice website, which has links to materials and resources: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/fsfl_ projects_energybestdeal

community learning

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Community learning champions take off Unionlearn is working with the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) to develop and support community learning champions (CLCs) – reaching out into communities to spread the word about lifelong learning.

Community learning champions (CLCs) can make a difference encouraging neighbours, family and friends to take up learning and job opportunities and acting as role models, showing how learning new skills and access to career pathways can be made easier.

Unionlearn’s Northern Region has always had close links within the wider community. As Joe McGuigan, Union Support Officer says, “the work of supporting trade unions in the region does not happen without an awareness of the social and economic conditions that those working and living in the region experience and their impact on the wider community.”

Following a meeting in 2012 with representatives of PEGAZ (Polish Community Organisation North East UK), ICOS (International Community Organisation of Sunderland) and Northern Revive (a community interest consortium focusing on refugees), the question was asked: ‘How can the TUC and unionlearn help its members?’

The community learning champions (CLC) course was proposed as a direct result of this question. Work began in September 2012 with induction sessions, and the first course ran until November 2012.

The Workers Educational Association (WEA) was engaged to deliver the course on behalf of NIACE,

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which followed the ‘Good Practice Framework for community learning champion Schemes’ and the ‘Community Learning Champions Support Programme’.

A leaflet was produced outlining the course and sent out via email to partner organisations and potential stakeholders. These included the above and also: ǃǃ Newcastle Tenants and Residents Federation ǃǃ Age UK North East ǃǃ Newcastle Crossings (a refugee support group) ǃǃ Newcastle Elders ǃǃ Quality of Life Partnership

stakeholder groups. Participants’ travelling expenses were reimbursed and lunch provided.

Nonetheless, positive outcomes so far reported include: ǃǃ Nine CLCs trained and active ǃǃ A network of CLCs established ǃǃ Partnership working between Newcastle City Learning (City Council) and CLCs ǃǃ Digital champions recruited ǃǃ Learning venue established in community lounge of residents’ tower block ǃǃ Other potential CLCs expressions of interest for new course

ǃǃ Diocesan Disability Task group.

ǃǃ UNISON community support worker engaged with CLCs/ residents’ groups.

Representatives of these organisations were then invited to a stakeholders meeting. The role of CLCs was explained more fully, with all present agreeing with the broad aim of the project and pledging support.

Future plans include: a genealogy course for a residents’ groups; nail art for a group of young mums; and a family learning course set up in partnership with residents and a local school.

Element 1 of the Good Practice Framework states that “CLCs who are recruited reflect the community they are intended to serve.” To this end, stakeholders distributed leaflets to their members, who then expressed an interest to the unionlearn facilitator. All interested parties were spoken to individually and given a more detailed explanation of the role of the CLC. Of those expressing an interest, no one was refused a place on the course.

A unionlearn conference on equality and diversity in March 2013 showcased what each unionlearn region had been doing over the past year. Northern Region’s focus was on community learning champions: ‘Taking learning into the community’.

Reflecting on the work, Joe McGuigan says: “We’re really pleased with progress so far and are making efforts to ensure future sustainability by continuing to support and maintain contact with CLCs, including providing opportunities for them to come together regularly to discuss their work.”

ǃǃ South Tyneside Libraries

Given that only a limited amount of funding was available to help facilitate the course, cost soon became a problem for some

Union engagement learning in the workplace and the community

We both enjoyed the CLC training, it was relaxed and friendly. Now we never stop trying to point people to one kind of learning or advice or where to go for training. When we talk to people who call into our drop-in sessions, we find you get to know them just by talking to them about normal day-to-day problems.

Two community champions recruited for the course, Val Scholar and Jenny Cavanagh, spoke about what they had learned at the conference. Of their role as community learning champions, Val commented: “We both enjoyed the CLC training, it was relaxed and friendly. Now we never stop trying to point people to one

kind of learning or advice or where to go for training. When we talk to people who call into our drop-in sessions, we find you get to know them just by talking to them about normal day to day problems. You can usually pick up how confident they are and then try to build on this as they know they can trust us

with matters that are confidential.

Our next step is a big one as we are trying to get a community centre built on our estate where lots of different types of training could be offered.”

Jenny recalls: “Val and myself, along with two other reps from the Newcastle Tenants and Residents Federation, undertook this training as we have been doing voluntary work with tenants’ groups across the city and wanted to add this to our achievements.

community learning

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We have since been able to give information to people who come into our drop-in sessions on how to access learning and have had two people who did basic English and maths, and another who went to college and has enrolled on a course.

“We attended the induction day first and then five further days (one day per week) and we found out about the different types of learning available in our city – from simple things to the most complex. I know Val and myself really enjoyed this course and have since held an open week of learning celebration in our neighbourhood in which we recruited many volunteers willing to give an hour of their time to become digital champions, i.e. to help someone else get online or even just show them how to use a computer.

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“We have since been able to give information to people who come into our drop-in sessions on how to access learning and have had two people who did basic English and maths, and another who went to college and has enrolled on a course.

Would we recommend this training?

Well the answer to that is yes we would – it was eye opening and very interesting as well.”

Union engagement learning in the workplace and the community

Photography Chris Gleave (22); Marjorie Newson (25); Mick Upfield (24). Š photofusion.org | John Birdsall (cover, 16, 18); Alexis Maryon (1); Keith Morris (1). Š reportdigital.co.uk | Paul Box (3); Jess Hurd (6, 19, 31, 32); David Mansell (15); Roy Peters (35); Philip Wolmuth (14, 27).

Published by unionlearn Congress House Great Russell Street London WC1B 3LS Tel: 020 7079 6920 Fax: 020 7079 6921 www.unionlearn.org.uk May 2013

Design: TUC Print: Newnorth

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