The GMB is supporting migrant workers at Airsprung Beds in Trowbridge gain skills that will help them at work, and in the wider community. The company employees 350 people, many of whom are migrant workers.

Agnieszka Zamonski is a Project Worker in the GMBs Southern Region and explained what they were doing:

We have had 41 migrant workers enrol onto various Functional Skills (FS) English courses through CSM Training, a provider we have been working with a lot. Some of the workers have very limited English and are very motivated to progress. 

We have a Polish speaking rep, Jaroslaw Ziober, who has done a great job promoting English courses amongst his colleagues. We have also done some basic IT sessions there using LearnMyWay as well as one session with Silver Training when funding was available for helping with digital skills."

Jaroslaw was recruited during the first Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) session that the GMB ran at Airspurng Beds and put a lot of effort into getting learners on board. He is now a workplace organiser and a Union Learning Rep (ULR). 

A learning survey was carried out in the workplace and IAG sessions were held. Also a few sessions using LearnMyWay and British Council Nexus run whilst English classes were being set up. 

Agnieszka said that the company have backed learning at the factory and is going well:

HR and the Operations Manager have been very supportive, although no paid time off to study was given. Learners got released for their 1:1s with the tutor. The employer has also provided facilities, their training room is being used once a week over four months - which has WiFi access."

There have been a number of challenges that the union faced, which they have overcome in order to support the workforce as Agnieszka explained:

The majority of learners are Polish, but there are some other Eastern Europeans, too, however they understand Polish. Most of them are studying towards an Entry level qualification in English. Due to the language barrier some IAG sessions were carried out in Polish. A lot of those learners have not attended a language course before. According to the tutor, they are highly motivated and eager to improve their language skills."

Jason Carey is Operations Manager at Airsprung and is very positive about the English classes taking place at the company. 

This has been very constructive and has certainly improved communications across the site. About 40% of our workforce are from abroad, and given the number specific policies and procedures that staff are required to follow whilst working on the factory a good understanding of English is pretty essential. The courses have made a lot of difference, and we are very happy with the way things have been going."

This is the start of the GMB involvement in learning at Airsprung Beds and they are continuing to promote basic and intermediate IT, various VRQs and are also looking into organising a Polish language course.