On Friday 22nd December, unionlearn delivered an inaugural Festival of Learning event with Asha, a refugee and asylum seeker charity in Stoke-on-Trent, in conjunction with Unite the union.

The event was delivered by unionlearn project officers, Matt Pointon and Mark Rowe and was attended by twenty-nine Asha service users, all from BME groups. It was also supported by Asha’s volunteers and staff.

Prior to the event, unionlearn held meetings with Asha’s coordinator, Godefroid Seminega as to which sessions would be most appropriate to their service users. This resulted in three separate learning themes for the day - Recycling and why it matters, an overview of ESOL and an introductory session to trade unions.

The one-hour introductory session on recycling covered a number of aspects on waste reduction and recycling and was delivered by Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s recycling team who attended the event free of charge and also distributed literature.

There were two ESOL sessions available to those attending depending on their needs and the union session was delivered by Unite Community in conjunction with unionlearn and explored what unions are and how they can support workers with a focus on learning and rights and work. The students asked lots of questions particularly around their rights at work, apprenticeships and how to access learning activities like maths.

As well as the sessions the team provided materials for Asha and service users including the TUC Equalities Toolkit, a selection of Quick Reads for the Asha library and various information sheets.

Matt Poniton said:

The event was exceptionally well-attended and the sessions very well received.

As well as the learning sessions some of the Asha service users used the budget which usually would have been used to purchase a buffet to prepare different foods for lunch as an additional learning and cultural experience. This wasn’t only a further learning opportunity but it also encouraged greater attendance as many members had specific dietary requirements and so felt safer eating food that they knew had been prepared in accordance with those requirements.”

Angela Glendenning is a trustee with Asha and was pleased to be working in partnership with unionlearn to support service users.

Angela said:

It is right and proper that Asha and unionlearn should find a harmony of interest in offering services to men, women and families seeking asylum. We share the core values of justice and equality for all and I hope our association beds down and we can continue to support one another and work together on a regular basis.”

John Walsh is also a trustee with Asha and added:

Learning about how the world of work is organised in this country is essential for integration for refugees, and listening to well-informed members of unionlearn\TUC was an eye-opener for refugees.”

Debashish Chakrabaty is a volunteer with Asha and found the sessions very useful. Debashish said:

Very resourceful and informative lecture from unionlearn. Especially Matt and Mark’s way of speaking and explaining things is very enjoyable and understandable. They always focused on the real trouble that we are facing most of the time.

I have enjoyed the session, maybe for the short duration they can’t do everything, but they do promise they will come back soon to give us more information about the queries of participants.”

This is just the first event and discussions are already taking place on a future day focusing on apprenticeships and skills, making use of unionlearns Value My Skills to support service users.