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Another ULR Success story: Unite at Siemens, LincolnSiemens in Lincoln has been a major employer in the area for many years and has been proactive in the area of training and development. Added to this they have now embraced the lifelong learning culture and one of the shining stars to come out of this is Unite ULR* Deb Ward. Deb has been an employee with the company for 17years and started out as a Draughtswoman and progressed to Senior Design Draughts person. She has been a member of her trade union Unite for 20years and became a workplace rep 12 years ago. In 2001 after picking up a leaflet on Lifelong Learning and the role of the ULR she decided to give it a go and embarked on the ULR journey. After completing the initial training with South Notts College Trade Union department she found herself the lone voice of Trade Union learning until two more shop floor members also came forward to join the ULR family. This was the start of what has been an exciting and productive time for Deb and the ULRs at Siemens. Deb is one of those people prepared to take on a challenge, as she has shown with the hard work put in to get the onsite Learning Centre up and running. Added to this are all the courses that she has undertaken to enable her to give the support required to fellow employees on their learning aspirations. In September 2003 the learning centre acquired Learn Direct status and Deb was able to organise 2 external tutors to be available in the centre for support. During her time as a ULR Deb has undertaken many different training courses to enable her to offer support in the various areas required during learning. She has gained qualifications in counselling, British Sign language, City and Guild 9845 and 9846 in Adult Learning support and her most recent success is that of achieving NVQ* level 3 in Advice and Guidance. She was able to undertake the NVQ with funding provided by Prospects based at North Hykeham and has had to put in a tremendous amount of work in the last 8 months, but this has proved to be very successful as her achievement shows. When Deb was asked if the NVQ had made a difference to the way in which she interacts with people she replied 'I feel that it helps me to structure the interview much better and because of this the learner is able to get more out of it'. Adding to this she said that she was able to produce an action plan that had a better finish and that information was recorded well which created a good paper trail for audit purposes. All in all the benefits of undertaking the NVQ are plain to see, Deb is very confident that she can now offer high quality Advice and Guidance on learning and help people to make the choices that will make a difference to them not only in their working lives but also in their everyday living. She hopes that she will be able to go on to do NVQ level 4 at some time in the future to be able to enhance her skills in this field even further. The Future for Deb is looking very bright at this time, as she will shortly be going off on maternity leave to await the birth of her first child. In her usual matter of fact way she told me that during the 6 months she will be off she would still be keeping a watchful eye on the Learning Centre. Siemens will be moving sites in 2009 and the learning centre will be moving with them hopefully to bigger and better things. Deb is a shining example of what can be achieved as a ULR and how this can benefit the individual, the learners that they support, and the company that they work for through the encouragement they offer to people to become involved in learning. Briefing document (700 words) issued 18 Apr 2008 |
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