PCS has launched a national Branch Learning Fund, to encourage branches and workplaces to run regular learning events throughout the year.

Union learning reps can now request, on behalf of their branch or employer group, a pre-paid trade union tutor or presenter to deliver a short, online session to members. Branches have a choice of 18 workshops, from CV writing, assertiveness and pensions to black history, neurodiversity and combatting domestic abuse. Most of the equality-related sessions are 'tasters' signposting attendees to longer courses. Branches can also access free learning and education from other providers. 

Financial wellbeing sessions offer much-needed support to members coping with a cost-of-living crisis they didn't create (one in five workers in the Department for Work and Pensions are forced to claim in-work benefits, and almost one in three staff at HM Revenue and Customs are paid so little they're on the national minimum wage). Sessions on joining a credit union, managing problem debt, personal financial planning, pensions and pre-retirement, all have high attendance rates. 

We are working with TUC skills officers to access Multiply funding for numeracy courses. We are tackling digital exclusion by running accredited ICT courses at level 1 and 2. Since 2021 over 100 members in London and the southeast have gained qualifications. Other PCS regions are now running similar accredited learning and from autumn we will offer non-accredited digital skills as well.

Our writing courses are very popular. This includes our life writing classes from the Royal Literary Fund's social sector, which provide a space for members to try out different ways of finding their voice under the gentle guidance of professional authors. The underpinning ethos is that everyone’s life is important and we all have significant stories to tell. The course enables individuals to give voice and expression to their life's stories within a supportive and creative environment. 

Last year we ran English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes for members in outsourced Facilities Management (FM). This year we aim to do the same, by negotiating paid time off to ensure fair access to learning for cleaners, security guards, porters and other workers in one of the most exploitative and underpaid areas of the economy.

Whilst the Union Learning Fund in England may have closed, union learning in PCS is very much alive. Both through our continued ULF projects in Wales and Scotland, and through our national learning programme set up after ULF England ended in 2021. At its heart remains our commitment to lifelong learning. This reflects PCS’s socialist belief in the full creative potential of each human being - and our rejection of employer's and government's narrow focus on our worth as workers.

But alongside this, PCS is integrating learning into core union activity. PCS recognises the remarkable power that learning has to engage members - including 'hard-to-reach' members who may not flock to other union activity - and is using these high levels of participation to make our union stronger.

Regular workplace learning makes the union very visible and embeds it in the workplace. It increases participation of under-represented members. It's a pathway to union activism. It can contribute to bargaining, equality and organising goals - for example, our upcoming pension webinars and courses include information on our national campaign for pensions justice. 

I'm writing this blog after attending the third and final day of PCS's successful new Learning Reps stage 2 course, the first time we've run this course in many years.

This afternoon, each learning rep gave a presentation on a learning event they will run next month, explaining how it will benefit members and build their union. They then discussed how they will each create an annual learning plan for their branch, consulting members and working closely with their fellow reps, so that learning activity is grassroots-led and reflects local union priorities.

Lifelong learning has the power to improve our psychological wellbeing, and to bring about personal and social transformation, and in PCS it continues to go from strength to strength.