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 Find related Union learning reps training courses. See all courses.  Union Learning – Adding Value to the Union Card Union Learning: adding value to the union card Education, Learning and Skills Forum Learning and Skills for All Fund 2009 - Manchester Launch Event Learning and Skills for All Fund 2009 - Lancashire Launch Event Learning and Skills for All Fund 2009 - Cumbria Launch Event Learning and Skills for All Fund 2009 - Chester Launch Event Learning and Skills for All Fund 2009 - Merseyside Launch Event  |
Napo's first learning conference looks at the futureLiz Smith, unionlearn* Director, gave a wide ranging speech at the 'Learning and Development' conference of ULRs in the probation officers' union Napo, today (Tuesday 15 July) in Hinckley, near Leicester. 'Union learning has now become a key part of the organising agenda for many unions' said Liz Smith at the first conference that Napo has organised for its ULRs. Learning is now part of the work of the TUC's Organising Academy, and understanding the role of learning as an organising tool has grown. In this development unionlearn has helped to raise the profile of ULRs as key elements in unions' structures and as recruiters for the unions. In the fight for equality union learning is also playing an important role, Liz Smith told the conference. The profile of ULRs is impressively younger, more female and more ethnically diverse, she said. The most disadvantaged are also gaining with union and Government focus on promotion of level 2 qualifications in the workplace. In addition training has been a valuable route to promotion for many workers who would have remained in fixed employment without upskilling opportunities. 'And now with our programme of training Equality Reps we hope to see a lot more being done', she said.
Liz Smith told the conference about the progress in learning that unions were making. 'We have now trained more than 22,000 ULRs, and last year alone more than 200,000 people went on courses through the union route,' she said. 'We have doubled the number of reps trained from 27,000 in 1997 to over 53,000 in the last year, a tremendous achievement. And we had a record number of full time union officers in our training programmes.' As unions are feeling the benefits from the learning agenda, more are bringing learning to the centre of their organisation's work. ULRs are now appearing in unions structures and rule books giving them new and enhanced status, Liz Smith told the conference. This is a growing recognition of ULRs' value not only by unions, but also by employers, Government ministers, and union members alike. And ULRs are most successful, Liz Smith told her audience, when employers value their work, where there are learning agreements or the opportunity to negotiate around learning, where ULRs have a reasonably large constituency, and where a learning centre exists. Liz Smith concluded by outlining opportunities that now exist to deepen union influence in the learning sector. She pointed to the consultation now under way around the right to request training. And she highlighted the chances that exist to build union membership and strength, and to project our public profile. Press release (500 words) issued 15 Jul 2008  Felicity collects her MBE at Buckingham Palace Winner of the Workplace Reading Pack 3rd unionlearn with SERTUC conference Learning is just the ticket for rail workers |
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