Union involvement in policy making


The TUC accepts that skills strategy continues to be largely determined by the state but argues that unionlearn has helped increase or at least maintain union influence over strategy. Specifically, there continue to be union reps on the 16 Sector Skills Councils and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) and these reps are all supported by unionlearn.


There are four trade union Commissioners on the UKCES including: Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC; Grahame Smith, general secretary of the STUC; Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary of Unite; and Dave Prentis, general secretary of UNISON.


Unionlearn coordinates regular briefings for the trade union commissioners and also works closely with UKCES on a range of learning and skills initiatives.


Over the past year collaborative working with UKCES has focused on the ongoing reform of apprenticeships, the establishment of Industrial Partnerships, and contributing to the development of UKCES’s key strategy document. 


The TUC and CBI employers’ organisation both gave their support to UKCES’s 2014 Growth through people report, which set out a strategy for action to improve skill levels and how they are developed in order to boost productivity, wages and social mobility. The report called for employers “to lead the way, working with unions and the government, to ensure the UK has the skilled workforce needed to create better jobs and fight off international competition”.


Sector Skills Councils


One of unionlearn's priorities is to support and promote union involvement in the work of Sector Skills Councils. Unionlearn works closely with affiliated unions to identify suitable candidates to sit on the boards and sub-committees of Sector Skills Councils and Industrial Partnerships to ensure that workers have their voices heard.


However, despite the recommendations of UKCES, there is no obligatory commitment that sector skills bodies — whether Industrial Partnerships or SSCs — should involve trade unions in their operations at a strategic level. Therefore, "the concept of an ‘employee voice’ remains weak in the UK and remote from anything closely resembling a social partnership model”. 


There are currently 16 Sector Skills Councils and five sector skills bodies who work with over 550,000 employers to define skills needs and skills standards in their industry. One of the Sector Skills Councils is also an Industry Training Board (Construction). The CITB already collects a levy from their members to support businesses through training grants. They are employer-led, UK-wide organisations.


Industrial Partnerships


In 2014, eight Industrial Partnerships were launched covering the following sectors: aerospace, automotive, creative industries, energy, information economy, nuclear, science, and tunnelling. Unionlearn broadly welcomed the development of Industrial Partnerships and has actively supported union involvement, while pressing for the adoption of the social partnership arrangements found in other European countries.


Unionlearn and affiliated unions continue to be involved in joint projects with Sector Skills Councils and Industrial Partnerships, including through union representation on their Boards and engagement at other levels.


Unionlearn provides a range of support services for union representatives, including briefings and regular network meetings, and also coordinates the nomination of officials from affiliated unions to sit on these sector bodies.


However, the fate of Industrial Partnerships provides a good example of how skills policy is continually thwarted by government policy changes. 


At the time of the launch of the partnerships, the expectation was that the pilots would receive government funds to March 2017. Following the change of government in May 2015, a decision was made to reduce the pilot timescale with government funding ending in March 2016. 


A decision was made to redirect the funding to support the government’s new target of delivering three million apprentice starts by 2020, reflecting an agenda and policy shift now focused on apprenticeship reform and the implementation of the apprenticeship levy (see Chapter 3).