Community develops the next generation of organisers
Community has used a tailor-made apprenticeship programme to help young people gain a wide range of organising skills.
Five young people completed their two-year apprenticeships with Community earlier this year, gaining qualifications in organising and business administration and a wealth of experience working with union branches throughout the country.
Community’s Personnel and Training Director Tristan Thompson worked closely with unionlearn and with Shrewsbury College to design a programme that would give the young people involved a comprehensive learning experience that would act as a solid start to their working lives, wherever they progressed on completion.
The union designed a rigorous recruitment and selection programme to find the most suitable candidates. Rather than appoint recent university graduates, Community was keen to find young adults who may not have been high-achievers at school and were looking for a helping hand at the beginning of their working lives.
Tristan worked with the union’s staff to prepare the ground for the apprentice intake, ensuring that everyone was clear about the goal an all-encompassing learning journey, providing coaching and mentoring training for staff and participating in reviews of the apprentices’ progress with their line managers.
The five apprentices were based in Community’s regional offices around the country – Motherwell, Middlesbrough, Kidderminster, Northampton and London – where they worked as apprentice organisers, supporting branch development by running local campaigns, driving up recruitment and identifying potential new activists.
Their apprenticeship programme comprised of:
- an accredited organising qualification that reflected the Community etho
- a mainstream accredited qualification
- a comprehensive programme of personal development
Tristan explained:
The vision of our general secretary, Roy Rickhuss, was to ensure that we created a pathway to accredited qualifications and live experience that could transform the working lives of our apprentices.
The apprentices all completed a Level 2 Certificate in Organising designed by unionlearn and Shrewsbury College and we also supported them through a Business Administration NVQ at Level 2 or Level 3, as we recognised that a union-specific qualification might not be all someone needed if they went on to work outside the movement once they completed their Apprenticeship with us."
In addition to training on workplace health and safety, equality and diversity and First Aid, the personal development programme was central to the apprenticeship.
Tristan continued:
Engagement was key, so we put together a series of interactive training courses that encompassed leadership skills, public speaking, making presentations, team-working and negotiating, which we delivered for the whole group in Community’s conference and training centre in Northampton.
The learning journey was essential to evidence and was supported by reviews, learning statements and presentations as the apprentices created a learning portfolio of work to chart their experience."
In addition, the union organised additional opportunities to support the development of all the apprentices: one became the apprentice Champion at a forum set up by Northampton Borough Council (close to where they were based); another was able to travel to Hungary as part of the Academy for Young Trade Union Leaders; while a third represented young workers at an international event in Brussels.
When the two-year programme finished in February 2017, Community was able to offer further two-year traineeship contracts to two of the apprentices. Of the remaining three, one is now employed at Middlesbrough Council working towards her CIPD qualification in human resources, while another has secured a job working in the office of London Mayor, Sadiq Khan.
Tristan added:
The general secretary’s vision was to create a lasting apprenticeship scheme: this was an incredible opportunity to change the lives of these young people and place them upon a career path of value."
This case study first appeared in “Unionlearn - Unions supporting high-quality Apprenticeships” which can be downloaded from the unionlearn website:
