Since making the positive decision of taking up learning, Simon Cotton has gained a tremendous amount of self-belief and is far more able to communicate effectively. He has made great strides in conquering his fears around Literacy and numeracy and far more confident in managing his finances and reading books he would have thought too difficult to read in the past.
This update gives unions and centres news of recent changes and announcements in the range of qualifications in English and Maths that will be available for funding in 2012/13; and some of the background to what is going on. We will produce further updates as the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) give more information on how English and Maths programmes are going to be funded, and how the new qualifications picture will fit.
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) qualifications are going through further changes. A major difference will be that instead of discrete ESOL qualifications learners will be expected to take the same classes as native English speakers and then progress to taking the same qualifications as well.
An important part of unionlearn’s function has been to look in depth at the impact and potential of union learning. This has been done by commissioning surveys, data analysis and case studies from leading researchers. This has resulted in the publication of fifteen research papers over the last five years ranging over a wide number of topics such as learning and organising, union learning representatives, the experiences of union learners , collective bargaining, learning partnerships and the utilisation of skills.
Trade unions are key to delivering the skills for a green economy, an audience of trade unionists heard in Taunton yesterday. Policy Officer Richard Blakeley told the conference that trade unions are pressing the case for investment in green skills within government, in localities, in the workplace and forming innovative new partnerships to deliver green skills and jobs.
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The Greener Jobs Alliance was established to advocate a coherent approach to deliver green jobs and skills in the UK. The founding members of the GJA are the University and College Union, Trades Union Congress, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, National Union of Students, People & Planet, and the Institute of Public Policy Research.
One of the most important roles a trade union can play is to ensure the welfare, health and safety of its members. For nearly two hundred years this has been one of the ‘added values’ of trade union organisation. Independent academic evidence shows that trade union safety representatives can make the workplace twice as safe as those workplaces that don’t recognise a union.
A healthy workforce is a happier, more productive workforce.
Keeping people well and in work has obvious benefits: protection against financial hardship, promoting a better quality of life and allowing people to make the most of their potential.
Unionlearn has produced a guide for union negotiators on engaging employer in bargaining for skills. The Negotiator’s guide for Bargaining for Skills sets the scene for engaging employers in including learning and skills to the bargaining table.