Union learning reps at Leeds City Council are demonstrating how working closely with their employer to combine their resources and effort can ensure that employees and the community can access learning opportunities.

Donna Padget, joint unions' learning co-ordinator and UNISON senior steward, said:

"We work closely with colleagues in HR who fully support our efforts to promote and engage colleagues at all levels in learning.

Working together has made all the difference in getting through some difficult challenges for both the union and the organisation.

Donna Padget said:

"Of course resources are very tight at the moment and this means that we have less funding as an organisation, and so do the learning providers. However, we have been using the Value My Skills cards to help establish people's potential and we can then use our distance learning programme and other provision from colleges to ensure that staff get onto accredited Level 1 and 2 courses. This builds on their previous experience and any in-house training they have received".

Donna also revealed how the ULRs have been engaging people with the Value My Skills cards in a very visual way.

Donna Padget said:

"We were finding that some colleagues were reluctant to engage with the card activity. Sometimes this would happen if their literacy skills were in need of development, or if they had a learning disability such as dyslexia which can cause challenges in dealing with complex printed information. In response we decided to create a single visual representation of all the cards at once on a board. This way, people could see the whole set of cards at once, and discuss how the activity works in advance with ULRs staffing the display. We were then also able to explain that we would support people to use the cards so that they would not have to be on their own during the process".

Once people have some idea of where their strengths and development areas lie, they are then able to access many opportunities.

Donna Padget said:

"We have a huge range of areas that we promote. For example, we are doing a summer camp during the month of July for the catering Staff which will focus particularly on numeracy. We also have a stall each month at our New Starters event and we are currently promoting our distance learning programme which offers a range of level 2 qualifications, with inductions are starting in July/August. We have also been involved in the National Numeracy Challenge, the digital skills programme "Learn My Way"; training for the Union Learning Reps (Climbing Frame, Discussion Leader, Value My Skills); Functional Skills and many more".

Established employees and those looking to progress or perhaps secure redeployment are also supported, and here in particular the determination of the team shines through.

Donna Padget said:

"We are also keen to offer progression to those who now want to look at higher level skills. For this we have recently made links with the Open University and also Leeds University's student advisors have been very helpful in explaining the rules around financial support and flexible study."

The ULRs are also working with other agencies to provide support in areas such as reading, health and well-being and financial awareness, and in these areas in particular they are also reaching out to the local community.

Donna Padget said:

"We are promoting the Six Book Challenge and Quick Reads and in fact this was one thing we did when we took our learning bus to the 'Party in the Park' event at the Temple Newsam historic estate in June. We also focused on financial and health awareness, and our target audience here was two-fold; the social care staff who work for us and for partner providers, and their clients and the wider community. In the learning agreement we have with the Council, we have agreed where we can to support the community as well as employees. This we do through signposting to external sources of advice and support such as Citizens Advice or the NHS."

Chris Aaron, Senior HR officer NVQ centre co-ordinator said:

"Sincere thanks to the joint unions for making the Party in the Park event successful. It worked really well having your stalls integral to the event. The feedback is really positive and on that note we would like to keep this format for the next event in September."