REAL LIVES “I KNEW what it felt like to be one of ‘the invisible workers’ and have people treat you like a slave and give you all the jobs that nobody else wanted to do,” says Edna Warwick, a former housekeeper and domestic at Exeter NHS hospital. She decided to do something about it, so enrolled on a women’s confidence-building and assertiveness course offered by UNISON. “It was brilliant. I came away from it a new person, ready to take on anything. “I rallied the housekeeping staff and helped support them to start making themselves listened to. It worked. People began to listen!” This is why UNISON is passionate to promote learning as an obvious – and readily available – choice for all workers. Over the last 18 months, UNISON has employed nine new educational fieldworkers as part of a funded project to establish a culture of learning. Ms Warwick is now one of these fieldworkers. After her initial confidence building training, she started to work her way through UNISON’s education programme. At the same time, she became active in her branch, being elected branch secretary in 1998. “Then I realised how much UNISON education and support had helped me, so I became involved in promoting workplace partnerships between UNISON, the Workers’ Educational Association and employers.” “So when you say to yourself, ‘I can’t do that’, oh yes you can!” she says. “Because I did, and I am now 44 years old. Never say never, there is always support there from both UNISON and your work colleagues.”

Whether we shot out of school in a haze of rebellious glory at the tender age of 16, skulked away quietly terrified, or made a rational choice to start earning, all of us probably wish we’d stayed just a little bit longer. UNISON can help, as Clare Bayley discovers

Learning to be

We’ve all giggled behind our parents’ backs as we show them, again, how to record the Antiques Roadshow on their hardly used video; but somehow it’s not as funny a generation down.

“My son uses computers at school but this time last year I was scared to even switch one on and couldn’t help him with his homework,” says Norma Busby, a 38-year-old bus driver from Northern Ireland.

Sound familiar? Well Ms Busby decided to do something about it – with a little help from her union – and has recently completed a UNISON course on information technology and communication in the workplace. “Doing the course has hugely improved my confidence,” she says.

UNISON courses are specifically tailored to meet the requirements of those most in need – such as people who work shifts, have children or caring responsibilities, or who lack confidence in their own abilities.

“The way the course was organised made it easy to do,” says Ms Busby. “Everyone else was a bus driver too so you weren’t worried the person next to you would have loads of A’ levels – we were all at the same level.”

The courses are mainly offered through UNISON Open College, which offers a range of courses from essential skills to entry into higher education. The emphasis is on personal development and building confidence and study skills, although the courses often result in progression at work and more involvement with the union.

UNISON has always believed that training and education should be a basic right for all workers. It leads to a better, more confident and more motivated workforce.

“By learning, we don’t just mean vocational training, the skills needed to do a particular task or job,” says Northern Ireland regional education officer Paul Donaghy. “We mean learning in the broadest sense – providing people with the skills and confidence to progress and participate at work, in the union and in wider society. UNISON is not just about learning to do, but learning to be.”

This is why Open College pioneered the award-winning Return to Learn programme with the Workers’ Educational Association.

It was funded by the union originally to allow members to gain skills in their own time. But from the mid-90s, UNISON began to negotiate agreements for members to take paid-release for study, with employers covering the costs of courses. Most importantly, members can learn in the workplace during working hours.

Return to Learn involves a few hours of independent study each week over a period of six to eight months. This can be fitted in around other commitments. The programme is designed for people who want to improve their writing and reading skills and provides each learner with a tutor, who works with members throughout the course, giving individual written feedback on assignments.

The tutor also organises regular local study groups with 10 to 12 students, providing an opportunity to swap ideas and experiences.

Annmarie Letham completed Return to Learn two years ago and says she could never have done the course if it hadn’t been available this way. “Most women can’t attend courses ‘in their own time’ because if they have kids they don’t have any ‘own time’,” she says.

Almost 10,000 members do Return to Learn and other workplace learning programmes every year, and a key goal of these courses is to help students think about going on to further qualifications, such as Access to Nursing, Nurse Conversion courses, School Teaching Assistant certificates, Diplomas in Social Work, GCSEs and A levels.

Before doing Return to Learn, for example, Ms Letham had not been near education since leaving school. She has since gone on to complete a Level 3 SVQ in business administration, and she is studying computing with a view to enrolling on a business-related HNC or HND.

Increasingly, gaining new skills is not just a luxury for public service workers but a necessity. Recent legislation means all starters in the health and social care sectors are required to get a qualification and comply with new standards at work.

At the moment, most of the 400,000 frontline staff working in social care have few or no qualifications and risk being left behind when new workers arrive with qualifications.

While the government-backed Learndirect initiative aims to reach a wide range of people who lack skills, it is all based on e-learning – anyone without computer skills is automatically excluded. This led UNISON to set up a different scheme – Careconnect.

This teaches members the basic skills they need to use computers, backed up by personal support, either face-to-face, over the phone, by email or on line.

It also provides members with access to computers, either at work, at home or in local learning centres. Literally, it ‘connects’ them to learning.

“We set up Careconnect because we realised that the people who traditionally have lost out were going to be excluded again, this time from computers and e-learning,” says chief executive Tony Chandler. “We’re taking the learning to the learner so they can learn any time and any place they choose.”

E-learning is like a correspondence course, but uses the internet and email instead of the postal system. The great advantage of e-learning is its flexibility – you can work when you get the chance, and your tutors can communicate with you via email rather than waiting until you can get to a phone.

In fact, e-learning is ideal for frontline staff working shifts, in scattered workplaces or with limited time of their own to study – provided they have access to computers and the confidence to use them easily.

Careconnect courses include essential skills, computer skills and courses relating to care work: for instance, training in the induction standards for working in care.

Careconnect courses are free for learners employed by NHS trusts, adult social care departments, independent and voluntary care organisations – from residential homes to large care providers such as Marie Curie.

Rona Jackson was working as a nursery assistant at the Royal Bethlem hospital in London when she decided to enrol on a Careconnect course. She opted for the word skills check course, which assesses literacy skills, and was being run from a trust learning centre in Beckenham.

“I’ve always lacked confidence in my writing abilities,” admits Ms Jackson. “I wanted to do something about it. I worked through the different stages on the computer at home. My results showed me I wasn’t bad at all. It made me want to try other courses. Now I’m a qualified nursery nurse and a few of my colleagues are interested because they’ve seen what it did for me.”

Respond to this article

LIFELONG LEARNING ADVISORS Much of the encouraging people to learn is done by union learning reps or ‘lifelong learning advisor’ in the workplace. UNISON is developing its branch-based network of these reps and advisors, to help ensure everyone enjoys the right to learn. But often these advisors themselves lack qualifications or confidence and need training. This work is co-ordinated by the union’s learning and organising services unit (LAOS). The education and training available to encourage others ranges from steward training right through to lay tutors who run branch-based courses and activities. Becoming a learning advisor or rep can help fellow members and boost your morale, as well as involving you in the union if you want. New legislation gives union learning reps and lifelong learning advisers paid release to train and carry out their roles, similar to shop stewards and health and safety reps. “This is a historic achievement which will make a big difference for the whole workforce,” says general secretary Dave Prentis. “It’s key to making lifelong learning a reality in the wider workforce.” UNISON has already recruited more than 1,000 learning reps and advisers since 2002. These are usually members who have benefited from the union’s learning opportunities and are keen to pass that opportunity on to their fellow members. Their role is to support and encourage new and potential learners. Learning reps are usually more interested and active in organising around learning at work. They may take part in collective bargaining with the branch and help ensure everyone in the workplace gets a good deal. THE NHS UNIVERSITY The NHS university was formed to give all health service staff in England the opportunity to learn and develop personally and professionally. It is committed to widening participation in learning within the NHS and offers the opportunity for anyone to pursue a learning pathway to a foundation degree within five years of joining the NHS. The NHS Plan entitled all staff without professional qualifications to ‘learning accounts’ and UNISON is using its expertise in reaching and supporting groups of staff who don’t usually volunteer for training. UNISON is determined the NHSU should benefit all staff, not just professionals, and recently signed a national agreement committing itself, the NHSU and NHS management to joint working. The NHSU programmes and services were piloted from November 2003 and are being rolled out throughout 2004. The NHS had adopted a “skills escalator” approach, which supports continuous development while allowing learners to step on and off learning at different stages and times of their careers. The NHSU is set to become a fully fledged university for the NHS, and UNISON’s early support will yield benefits for members.

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