RMT Learning is developing an online portal for the union’s maritime members to help them find learning opportunities more easily and then access the learning online, at the time and place best suited to their needs.

The portal will bring together in one place as many relevant providers and opportunities as possible in order to help a group of learners that is hard to reach because of the irregular hours and shift patterns that are usual for seafarers, dockworkers, divers, oil rig workers, wind farm maintenance staff and river cruise workers.

Ivor Riddell, the RMT’s lead learning organiser for maritime, explained:

They all work irregular hours and staggered shift patterns, depending on the needs of the job, so regular learning is very difficult to access balanced with work, home commitments and a work/life balance that is already precarious.”

The plan is to include some bespoke courses suggested by the maritime members themselves as well as functional skills, vocational learning and personal development.

The portal is due to be launched as a pilot for testing at the RMT National Education Conference in March, Ivor says.

Ivor said:

As always, there will be a few teething issues to sort and once it has been evaluated and tweaked we are looking to give it a full launch in September.”

The launch will coincide with a recruitment drive for maritime ULRs to help promote the portal and support learners, as well as monitoring and expanding the content further as time goes by.

This story first appeared in the Spring 2020 Learning Rep e-Magazine – download your copy free today.