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West Ham MP Lyn Brown sees the value of union learning at East HamWest Ham MP Lyn Brown will today (Friday 27th June) visit East Ham Town Hall to see how union learning reps ( ULRs ) are improving Newham Council's employees' skills levels. Over 9,000 of the Council's staff, are encouraged by 14 ULRs from local government union, UNISON, to return to learning. Lyn will speak to learners and ULRs and hear from her constituents how they benefit from courses on basic numeracy and literacy, IT and English as a Foreign Language (ESOL).
Photo above: Lyn Brown MP presents Patrick Hand with his award. With them are: unionlearn* official Jane Warwick, union learning rep Oreleo DuCran , and learning consultant Catherine Anderson. Newham Council union-led learning is no stranger to success. Newham Borough ULR* and UNISON member, Patrick Hand received the 'unionlearn South Eastern Region Award for Promoting Workplace Learning' at the London regional National Institute for Continuing Education Adult Learners' Week* Awards in May. Patrick left school with no formal qualifications and felt badly let down by the school system. He worked in a number of low-paid and low-skilled jobs, often with very poor working conditions before he began to work for the London Borough of Newham as a road sweeper eight years ago. Lyn Brown MP said: ' A modern, skilled workforce lies at the heart of a successful economy. Unionlearn provides an important service to union members who want to get on by suggesting the appropriate courses from a list of more than 950,000, and giving advice about childcare, writing CVs and preparing for interviews. 'Whenever I visit local companies, they stress it is crucial to their future success to have the right people in the right jobs. I support Unionlearn's commitment to doing just that, and thereby ensuring the brightest possible future for Newham.' Deputy Mayor of Newham, Councillor Christine Bowden, said: 'We have been working with the unions in launching the successful Skills for Life* pilot programme. To date, 171 employees have attended courses on literacy, numeracy , basic ICT*, communication skills or English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). 'We were one of the first employers nationally to sign up to the Skills Pledge*, which commits the council to providing Skills for Life learning opportunities for its workforce. We are pleased with our achievement that has been made possible by working in partnership with the union learning reps.' 'Our biggest success has been the achievements gained by our employees, with many gaining formal qualifications for the first time. This has sparked a new interest in learning for many employees who may not have had earlier educational opportunities. As a result they have gone on to attend further courses.
Barry Francis, unionlearn Regional Manager said: 'The partnership between the trade unions and Newham Council is an excellent example of how individuals, the Council and the Borough of Newham are benefiting. With outstanding union learning reps such as Patrick Hand, we are sure that Lyn will be impressed with the hard work being put into raising skills.' NOTES TO EDITORS: All unionlearn press releases can be found at www.unionlearn.org.uk Pic caption: Lyn Brown MP presents Patrick Hand with his award. With them are: unionlearn official Jane Warwick, union learning rep Oreleo DuCran , and learning consultant Catherine Anderson. Media enquiries: Press release (700 words) issued 27 Jun 2008  Roger Berry MP visits Alcan Janet Johnson is the TUC's 2008 union learning rep of the year Award-winning Cityclean union learning rep briefs Minister on skills |
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