Supporting Learners (IAG) 

Union learning reps|Negotiating learning agreements|Supporting Learners (IAG)|Establishing Matrix standardCase studiesPublicationsClimbing FrameLearning & Careers ServiceResearch ReportsGuidesStrategy for Supporting LearnersHigher Education Working with providers|Skills for Life|Union Learning Fund|Learning centres|Learning and organising|Learning & skills initiatives|Information Communication Technology|Equality and diversity|

Guidelines for using the Climbing Frame

• Key information
• The 'Learning Themes' section
• The Climbing Frame Icons

Key information

The Climbing Frame* is an electronic tool for ULRs and others who work with learners. It can be customised to meet the needs of specific unions and sectors.

The Climbing Frame has 3 main functions:

Information through the Learning Themes section

o To provide a 'one stop shop' source of up to date information and advice for ULRs on a broad range of learning opportunities and union/unionlearn support.

Action planning with learners through the Learner Management section

o To enable ULRs to construct a personal Climbing Frame and action plan with learners which can be regularly reviewed and updated

Record keeping and data collection through the Learner Management section

o To enable ULRs to keep an ongoing record of who they have worked with, when and how often they have met, the actions that have been agreed and implemented.

o To provide unions and ULRs with aggregated information at regular intervals to illustrate the overall profile of the learners they have been working with.

The 'Learning Themes' section

Overview

The Climbing Frame contains a variety of information, which is organised into 9 learning themeslots.

The Learning Themes contain summary on-screen information about a range of learning opportunities, with external links to relevant websites and internal links within the Climbing Frame to PDF files of key documents, all of which are printable.

Each theme has a ULR Notes facility, which enables ULRs to write their own notes and put in their own contacts.

There is a Library section for each theme, which shows all the PDFs and websites referred to throughout the theme. This can be used as a quick reference point.

All themes are structured in the same way with 2 levels of information. Tier 1 contains general information and Tier 2 gives further information about specific topics.

Have a look at a Learning Theme

All the themes follow the same structure so by looking at one you will be able to find your way through them all.

Click onto the 'Learning Themes' icon and then select the 'Skills for Life' theme. You will see a general information page outlining what is in the Skills for Life* learning theme.

You will see that tier 1 has a series of headings:

o Skills for Life

o Unionlearn support

o Funding options

o Sector Skills Council support

o National initiatives

To access the information under these headings, click on the 'Next' button at the bottom of the page. You will see that there are 11 tier 1 pages. Don't forget to scroll down the screen to see the full page.

The arrow half way down the general information page points you to the tier 2 list of options included in the Skills for Life theme which give you further information about a particular topic. These are also listed at the bottom of the information page. They are:

o Levels and qualifications

o Skills for Life needs - identifying needs and raising awareness

o Support in the workplace

o Skills for Life providers

o learndirect* provision

o Equality and diversity

o Case Studies

o Library - Skills for Life

Remember you can add your own relevant local information to the ULR* Notes.

Click onto one of the Skills for Life options. You can see how many pages there are at the bottom of the screen. Again don't forget to scroll down to see the full page.

As you look through all the information in this theme you will see pictures of booklets or documents. Click on 'download it here' to access a PDF of the document. You do not have to be on-line to do this.

You can access relevant websites by clicking on the blue web address if you are on-line.

Remember you can print anything, copy things on to word documents or copy text information on to the ULR Notes page.

Go to the ULR Notes page and write some of your own notes. This page does not have bold or underlining facilities so it is important to organise carefully what you write.

Next move to 'Learner Management' section:

This section has 2 functions i) Action planning and ii) record keeping and data collection.

Action planning

With each learner ULRs can create, edit or delete a personal Climbing Frame and an action plan, which can be stored and printed for learners to take away and use.

Records of each meeting are stored and can be reviewed and updated.

Process

To create a Climbing Frame use your own experience, work with a friend or colleague or use one of the Case Studies at the end of these guidelines.

Go into the Learner Management section and click on 'Add a new learner'. You will go into the learner details section. You will see 3 screens. Fill in the 'personal details' screen then complete the 'Work details' and the 'Learning details' screens.

The Learning details form is usually completed either by the ULR or the learner at the first meeting. The idea is to work with the learner to record some personal details and to get an idea about their work and learning history and initiate discussion about what learning they wish to take up. If you go to the ' Information and Signposting' theme and go into the 'First meetings ' option, on page 2 you will see an explanation of the sections of the form.

Save the form when you have finished and click on 'Go to Climbing Frame'. You will see that the Climbing Frame now contains a hexagon marked personal details. Click on this and you will see the personal details form, which can be amended if required at any time.

To complete an 'action plan', go the Climbing Frame screen and choose one of the learning themes. All actions must relate to one of the Learning Themes. Click on to the theme you have chosen. You will see a screen headed union learner action

Do not start with the 'Summary' but go to the 'Details' part of the action plan first . Decide on an action e.g. - Level 1 English?decide some other information such as 'contact Jane Smith, Skills for life manager at Frankton FE* College ' and write this in, plus any other information you wish to include.

You can use the information in the learning themes behind the action plan forms by minimising the form. You can then print, copy and paste any information you require including anything from the ULR Notes section where you can keep your referral information.

Go back to 'Summary' and fill in the action: 'Level 1 English', or whatever you have decided upon. The summary action will appear in the Climbing Frame hexagon and must be no more than 30 characters. You must complete the action and review dates. Clicks 'Save Action' and you will go straight to the Climbing Frame.

Decide which hexagon you wish to place the action you have just recorded. By dragging the hexagon by the small arrow it can be moved to another place on the Climbing Frame.

For every individual action you will need to go into the Climbing Frame and choose a learning theme. There can be as many actions in each learning theme as you wish but you will need to go into the theme separately for each action.

When you have completed the action and placed it in one of the hexagons, click on to the 'Go to Action Plan' button and you will see the action plan recording what has been agreed. This can be printed. It can also be edited at any time.

Now go back to learner management and you will see how it has been recorded and has been added to the list of learners so it forms a record of who the ULR has worked with, which can be reviewed and added to.

Record keeping and data collection

The information gathered in the personal details and action planning areas enables key data to be collected that will form the basis of the reports that are produced. These reports can help individual ULRs and unions gain a picture of the learners their ULRs are working with.

A simple report can be produced from the Climbing Frame and individual ULRs will be able to access data related to their own learners.

If the information is not completed then no data can be aggregated and no reports produced .

When new learners have been added, if connected to the Internet, press the 'Upload' button and the information will be uploaded. Then press the 'Reports' button and you will see how the information is recorded.

The idea is that the report form can be used to present to branch meetings or employers to show the numbers and profile of the learners you have been working with.

The Climbing Frames sits on the unionlearn* Climbing Frame server and each Climbing Frame has its own section.

To meet the needs of ULRs without easy access to the Internet, the password protected Climbing Frames are downloaded on to individual ULRs' PCs and can be used off-line.

Records of learners with whom that ULR has worked are kept on the ULR's PC and uploaded when convenient on to the union's section of the server or onto the unionlearn Climbing Frame section if they are using that Climbing Frame.

Unions will be able to access data for all learners with whom ULRs using their bespoke Climbing Frame have worked.

In agreement with unionlearn, unions will be sent regular reports regarding the learners seen by ULRs from their unions who are using the unionlearn Climbing Frame.

The learner records collected on the Climbing Frames and uploaded onto the server can be interrogated and used to produce more complex reports as required.

All ULRs will have a password issued and verified by their union if they have a bespoke Climbing Frame or by unionlearn if they are using the unionlearn Climbing Frame.

The information in the Learning Themes section of the Climbing Frame needs to be regularly updated to ensure its continued usefulness. Remember generic themes are updated by unionlearn, bespoke themes by the relevant unions.

The updating of the Learning Themes and data sharing will be the subject of a Service Level Agreement between unions and unionlearn.

Case Studies You can use the case studies below to complete the personal details and the action plan. John Williams is an Usdaw member working as a shop assistant in Dawkins Dept Store in Southampton (SO1 3BG). He is 28 (Date of Birth: 28.7.79), black British, and lives at 3 Willow Lane, Bittern Park, Southampton, SO14 7LY. His email is - bas@ntlworld.com, and his home phone number is 023 8063 3594. He has worked for 4 years as a salesperson for Dawkins and before that, 3 years in another shop. He has ambitions to become a Department Supervisor in the company and knows he'll need better numeracy & IT skills to go for that promotion. At school he got 2 GCSEs in English and History in 1995. He really wasn't keen on school, but now is keen to get qualifications for promotion and personal satisfaction - particularly the IT. In his spare time he helps out in a social club for teenagers with learning disabilities - his brother attends and that's how he got involved. He likes being with other people so would prefer learning in a group although he's not sure what level he's at. But he's keen on progressing in IT and thinks he'd be okay working by himself on that with some guidance and support. Possible actions : 1) John will contact a local adult centre and arrange to find out about the levels of their n umeracy classes and which might be right for him a nd to sign up for a Numeracy Entry 3 class. 2) John will take up an IT option at the learndirect centre. Jean Miller is a white 28 year old Usdaw member (Date of Birth: 11.4.79). She lives at 99 Petworth Ave, The Downs, Bristol, BS3 8CC. Her phone number is 0117 778 8264. She works as a supermarket assistant for a large national chain and works in a north Bristol branch (BS8 5LR). Jean has worked in the store for 4 years and is reasonably happy in the job. She has no current ambition in terms of work as her focus is on her family at present. She has 2 small children, one starting school soon. She got no qualifications at school but did pass her driving test in 2005. She felt that school passed her by. However, she's seen adverts about courses the union learning centre is putting on and feels she might try an, 'Improve your English' course as it may help her support her first child when he starts school. She feels her reading's OK but she hates having to write things down as she thinks she is not very good at spelling. Jean is a bit apprehensive about learning but she could take up some classes straight after work on Wednesday or Thursday Possible actions: 1) ULR to find out timetable of classes and then contact Jean. 2) Jean to sign up at a union learning centre for the 'Improve your English' course.

The Climbing Frame Icons

Learning Themes

This option allows you to access the information held in the 9 Climbing Frame Learning Themes.

Learner Management

This option allows you to access the Learner Management area of the Climbing Frame. In this area you are able to record sessions, construct personal Climbing Frames and produce Action plans for learners.

Update

This option enables you to check online for updated Learning Themes and to download new content. In order to do this you must be online and simply need to click the button and wait for the update.

Upload

This option enables you to upload your learners' data on to the Climbing Frame portal. You must be online to do this. Once the information has been uploaded you will be able to access the 'Reports'.

Reports

This option enables you to access a simple report online, based on your learners' data.

Home

This option takes you to the Climbing Frame home page.

Log Out

This option will end your Climbing Frame session and log out.

Help

This option opens a file with information about the different sections of the Climbing Frame and how to use it.

Briefing document (2,500 words) issued 23 Jan 2008

unionlearn
Congress House
Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3LS

Telephone 020 7079 6920
Fax 020 7079 6921
Email ulweb@tuc.org.uk

Further contacts | About us