4. The role of trade unions in skills and learning opportunities

Trade unions have a powerful role in promoting learning and skills in the workplace, and in their local communities in many cases, through the network of Union Learning Representatives (ULRs). The government acknowledges this role in its skills strategy, Skills for sustainable growth, and government support for union-led learning through the Union Learning Fund (ULF) has been maintained at £21.5 million for the 2011-12 financial year. The box on page 46 sets out the themes and priorities for projects funded from April 2011.

Virtually all unions have a learning programme and support in place for their ULRs. Since 1999, 26,040 ULRs have been trained by TUC Education, and in 2010-11 alone, they supported 224,599 learners. More than 1,000 workplace learning centres have been set up and unions have negotiated over 1,500 learning agreements with employers.

Unionlearn figures show that in 2010-11 there were a total of 147,890 learning opportunities supported via the union route as follows:

• 34,195 Informal Adult Learning;

• 24,113 Level 2;

• 22,967 Continual Professional Development (CPD);

• 18,686 ICT;

• 17,859 FE;

• 17,526 Skills for Life;

• 4,878 HE;

• 3,521 Level 3; and

• 4,145 Others

With the support of their unions, ULRs have become “the driving force of union-led learning”. Trained to advise their members about learning opportunities and to work with employers and training providers to provide these opportunities, they play a unique role in getting people back to learning and breaking down barriers. Workers who are not necessarily confident about their skills can confide in ULRs in a way that would not be possible with their managers.

Their role includes giving frontline information, advice and guidance (IAG) as well as referring members to organisations able to give further professional help and advice, such as the career services, further education colleges, training providers, employment services, libraries and trade unions.

And they give a voice to those who are least qualified and arguably most in need of training but who have traditionally been at the back of the queue.

This chapter provides examples of how unions and ULRs are widening learning opportunities for their members.

Learning agreements

As well as encouraging individuals to undertake training, ULRs and their unions negotiate learning agreements at work as a way of formalising training and learning arrangements with employers. Despite the absence of any collective bargaining rights to negotiate over training and learning provision in the workplace, unions have successfully negotiated learning agreements and/or incorporated a learning element into collective bargaining agreements. Unions have negotiated more than 1,500 learning agreements with employers.

The Council of Civil Service Unions/Cabinet Office Model Learning Agreement details how the employer and trade unions will work together to ensure that employees have the skills they need for their current role and for the future. This sets out:

• both the employer’s and the unions’ responsibilities to encourage and support learning;

• the arrangements for consultation and negotiation on learning;

• the role and functions of ULRs;

• analysing learning or training needs;

• providing information or advice about learning or training matters;

• arranging learning or training;

• promoting the value of learning or training;

• consulting the employer about carrying out such activities;

• preparation to carry out any of the above activities;

• undergoing relevant training;

• facilities for ULRs — including time off with pay to undertake their role and attend union training, accommodation and equipment;

• the number of ULRs;

• access to learning for employees, including promotional events, learning priorities, and

• fair and appropriate access.

Joint Learning Committees

Usdaw deputy general secretary Paddy Lillis, says that his union highly values the role of the Joint Learning Committee: “This is a key part of our strategy in developing union/company partnerships, helps to engage employers in discussing the learning and training needs of the workforce and keeps it on the agenda. Usdaw currently has over 60 active site level committees established across a range of companies,” he said.

Joint Learning Funds

Joint Learning Funds have also been an integral part of the union’s strategy to help keep learning affordable for its members. While contributions vary across sites and companies they encourage the idea of co-financing learning for members (see co-investment and collective learning funds (CLFs) in chapter 2).

Learning centres

More than 1,000 workplace learning centres have been set up and there are also examples of joint community and trade union (CTU) learning centres.

Learning Centres can be in workplaces, union offices and Trade Union Education centres. They are supported by tutors from local providers, such as colleges, who work with unions to deliver a range of learning opportunities that vary according to the needs of the local union membership. Unionlearn says that ICT and Skills for Life are an essential part of every offer to union learners.

U-Net is a national network of learning centres managed by unionlearn and offering “learndirect” as well as other learning opportunities. Larger centres support smaller outreach centres in locations like bus garages and workplace depots where learners can access one-to-one support and e-tutor support.

Unionlearn negotiated provision for a learning centre at Pudding Mill Lane in London by the main site for the Olympics. It enables learning to take place at home, at work, in the community and at the centre and is open from 9am to 5pm Tuesday to Friday and Monday afternoons. It currently offers numeracy courses to help manage money better; help with learning how to use a computer and access the internet, send and receive emails and print files; help with writing more clearly — for letter writing and application forms, English, maths or computer skills qualifications and courses to help people be more confident in meetings.

And with the support of UCATT and unionlearn, construction company Willmott Dixon recently transformed a dilapidated storage area at its Scarborough base into a learning centre providing learning opportunities for its workforce and the local community.

The initiative is part of the company’s Opening Doors work placement and apprenticeship programme, which offers training and development opportunities for local people including those who are currently unemployed.

The main area of the learning centre can be used as a traditional classroom, with a whiteboard, projector and laptop computers. But it can also be used to deliver training in practical construction skills including tiling and plastering, painting and decorating and plumbing. The centre offers training in these skills to the local maintenance team and to Yorkshire Coast Homes tenants and other residents in the local community — particularly those who are unemployed or have been affected by redundancies and business closures.

Skills for Life

As part of its Union Learning Fund project, Unite Lifelong Learning is running a pilot scheme in partnership with Veolia Environmental Services depots in London which aims to provide learning opportunities for people who find it hard to access training — such as people who work unsocial hours, for example.

Mobile learning facilities bring laptops to the learners in their workplaces — currently two depots in central and east London, although Unite intends to extend the scheme to neighbouring depots — and enables the union to deliver Skills for Life training.

The learners come from wide and varied backgrounds and ethnic groups, and include those who have left school recently and mature learners who wish to gain a qualification to improve their work prospects, promotion or simply because they want to learn.

“The ULRs who represent each of the pilot depots have been an integral part of the steering group and have been a vital ingredient in ensuring the smooth running of the learning days,” Unite learning centres manager Christine Brooks told LRD. “The commitment of the ULRs to this pilot has been outstanding and has resulted in increasing enrolment and regular attendance by the learners. They are keen to see the pilot carry on and be extended to other subjects and depots. We never turn anyone away and we endeavour to help anyone who has a learning aim.”

And at one Highlands and Islands call centre, which has the contract for dealing with parking at an inner London borough, the transport union TSSA has set up a successful approach with the employer around Skills for Life, specifically literacy. A problem with the quality of letters being sent to customers was identified and some workers were put under performance management, with the ultimate threat of losing their job. In addition, the employer was under threat of receiving financial penalties from the local authority. The union set up literacy courses on site which workers can attend in paid work time. Because they were set up, organised and supported by the union, and not seen as being imposed by the employer, the courses have proved popular and one in four of the workforce there is now undertaking some form of union learning set up by TSSA.

Green skills

UCATT’s Wales Union Learning Fund (WULF), Building Learning across Wales project, aims to ensure that construction workers across Wales have access to good quality training and learning opportunities that will increase their skills and employability. This will develop NVQ Level 2/3 Waste Management Operations (Construction Logistics) and the Removal of Non-Hazardous Waste (Construction) Materials courses to help workers to secure “green” job opportunities.

The union has also taken part in a NoWaste project at Bovis Lend Lease sites that has run across London. In addition to reducing waste through raising awareness among construction workers, the project is also delivering training to several hundred workers and has helped many to gain NVQ Level 2 qualifications in the removal of non-hazardous waste (construction) and waste management operations (construction logistics).

And further and higher education union UCU’s green reps are taking part in a campaign to promote green skills, particularly in construction. This builds on the work of a pilot project with South Thames College and the London Borough of Merton to enhance the low carbon skills of local electricians and plumbers.

Skills recovery and help through redundancy

PCS ULRs joined forces with unionlearn to provide training for workers being made redundant when HMRC closed a number of local tax offices across the country. In Kettering, the PCS ULR negotiated time off for staff about to be made redundant to take part in a training programme at their workplace. This included two days working on employability skills, including building a CV, confidence building, completing on-line job applications and interview techniques.

In addition, as many of the workers had supervisory skills they also attended a five-day management qualification course, Introduction to Leadership at Level 3 and a three day City & Guilds Customer Service Technical Certificate course at Level 2. The training was provided to fit in with the workers’ normal hours of work so was delivered between 9.30am and 3.30pm each day.

And disabled workers being made redundant from local tax offices across the East Midlands took part in PCS/unionlearn training workshops to consider their potential for first line management and supervisory roles.

UCATT’s Vulnerable Workers’ Unite (VWU) campaign ran a series of Help Through Redundancy events to provide support and information, advice and guidance for building workers at risk of, or facing, redundancy.

These events, part of the union’s Union Modernisation Fund (UMF) project, brought together a number of specialists to provide information, advice and guidance in:

• employment and welfare rights;

• the state benefits system and eligibility;

• financial issues including debt, mortgage payments and pensions;

• retraining and up-skilling opportunities; and

• job-seeking and related skills.

The VWU campaign also used a Celebration of Learning event to combine an introduction to ICT skills, advice on CV writing and job seeking with education on financial management. Ten construction workers at risk of redundancy at Cannock Chase District Council took part in a Basic ICT Workshop and a Money Advice Service “Moneymadeclear” presentation helping them to update their skills and improve their employability.

UNISON provides guidance on working with members threatened with redundancy on its website at: http://issuu.com/thedesignmill/docs/toolkit_moving_on?mode=a_p

The transport union TSSA has been running workshops on redundancies and learning and skills for its activists. These aim to give them the skills, knowledge and confidence to lead on the “other side” of redundancy fight backs at work by negotiating on up-skilling and training opportunities at the same time as fighting for jobs.

The workshops focused on involving members in campaigning for training; building successful negotiations with employers and targeting financial support and paid release for up-skilling and qualification training for the whole workforce.

And the journalists’ union NUJ, which is providing training to increasing numbers of unemployed journalists, runs free or low cost (£25 per day) courses in business and multimedia skills, CV writing and interview skills. In addition, unemployed members are entitled to enrol on one free professional development course in addition.

Online learning

Informal learning and online learning are areas the communications union CWU is increasingly involved in as a way of dealing with the lack of funded provision, and also enable the union to offer more flexible options for members who may not be able to access learning due to geographical or other barriers. Its website provides information on these two areas at: www.cwu.org/cwu-education.html.

Combining these two areas, the union has recently redesigned the education pages of its website (www.cwueducation.org) and it now offers a portal to a range of informal online courses covering Skills for Life, Computers and IT, Languages, Science, History, Higher Education and the Arts. It is also in the early stages of producing its own online content.

“While some of the resources available freely online are marvellous, you are always a hostage to fortune if you do not have the ability to produce your own resources,” said CWU national project manager Paul Dovey. “We are piloting a system which will allow us to populate a “moodle*” site with a range of good quality online content, produced by and for our members.”

*Moodle is a free web application that can be used to create online learning sites, also known as a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Course Management System (CMS), or Learning Management System (LMS).

Progression to higher level learning: Foundation degrees

Unions are helping to break down the barriers between further education (FE) and higher education (HE) and between academic and vocational courses. A university education is becoming ever more expensive, with annual fees of £9,000 a year now looming in England.

Unions are negotiating with employers for more help with tuition fees and with FE and HE institutions to offer learning that is more tailored to their members’ needs, such as more on-line learning, more recognition of the experience their members have gained and more courses tailored to the jobs members do or aspire to.

For example, UNISON and Unite worked with Merseytravel to set up career development loans for employees who wanted to embark on courses, such as Open University degree courses. The organisation paid the fees up front and these were then deducted through the pay roll.

Promoting learning in the community

Following the success of the communications union CWU’s learning centre at Wolverhampton Mail Centre the local union branch decided to help the local Sikh community set up a learning centre at their temple in Cannock in the West Midlands.

Union Learning Representatives (ULRs) introduced them to City of Wolverhampton College and the college is now delivering courses including English, Maths and IT to the Sikh community. In addition there is now a gym in the temple, running wrestling classes delivered by a gold medallist in the sport.

“My first visit to the Temple was overwhelming and their hospitality is second to none. We have now formed a great friendship, evidenced by their support on the recent march against the privatisation of Royal Mail. People gave up their own time to prepare meals and drinks to anyone, at no cost,” said CWU ULR Steve Hackford. “I invite anyone that is near a Sikh temple to go and have a look round, you will be greeted like you have never been greeted before; you go in as a stranger and come out as a friend. Their generosity and respect for each and everyone is unbelievable. This is what I call a true cultural exchange.”

Informal learning

“Our members benefit greatly from informal learning, and working in environments where there is a lifelong learning culture. This increases the take up in learning and training by non-traditional and hard to reach members,” RMT learning project manager, Teresa Williams told LRD. “It is often very relaxed, sociable and fun, encourages people who would otherwise not be interested to have a go and get involved, and can be quite cheap, if not free.”

The union has helped to set up taster sessions and ULRs have run sessions or courses on learning the guitar or sign language.

Head of UNISON learning and organising services, Pam Johnson, agrees that unions have an important role in promoting informal adult learning as a stepping stone to more formal learning. The union has just produced a toolkit for ULRs which is available on its website at: http://issuu.com/thedesignmill/docs/ulr_toolkit?mode=a_p

Reaching out to ‘vulnerable workers’

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is running several projects to provide career progression training for vulnerable workers, including freelancers and young and student journalists. This includes training on CV writing, interview skills, social media and multi-platform working.

It is also leading a multi-union training project (along with the actors’ union Equity, the musicians’ union MU and the Writers’ Guild) to provide business and multimedia training specifically geared towards freelance members. The union has created a bespoke online course for its ULRs and has a similar new course for its freelance learning advisers — who unlike ULRs cannot access facility time for their role because they are not employed.

Learning and organising

Union learning supports organising (and vice versa), and unions are increasingly integrating learning and organising.

Forty three per cent of ULRs are women, 8.4% are black or minority ethnic and 39% are aged under 46. They are therefore more likely than any other union representatives to be women, black and young and are more representative of union membership. A third are new to trade union activity and three quarters of ULRs have helped recruit new members to their union.

Construction union UCATT ran around 25 Learning to Organise — Organising to Learn courses, bringing together full-time officers (FTOs) with convenors, shop stewards, safety representatives and union learning representatives (ULRs). As in other unions, union learning is not confined to ULRs and other reps are involved in promoting learning opportunities at work. They discussed how to best encourage members to participate in the learning and training opportunities on offer in order for them to gain recognition and accreditation for their existing skills, provide qualifications to improve their job security and increase their employability. They also discussed how those learning opportunities could be linked to recruitment and organisation across the industry.

UK unions are also becoming increasingly interested in community unionism — where unions seek to “reach out” to the community and which is more developed in countries such as Australia and the United States. As the CWU examples above show , ULRs may be able to play an increasingly important role in this area.