Supporting and Developing Activists
UNISON College will be in Liverpool for this year’s National Delegate Conference. We’ll be hosting a fringe meeting at lunchtime on Wednesday 14 June, where we’ll be exploring the theme of Supporting and Developing Activists: how activist training can form part of a strategy that sustains and enthuses our reps and officers, introducing new courses, and ensuring that our activist base is confident and equipped for the future. And we’ll be in the Unizone on Thursday 15 June to answer all your questions about UNISON member learning and activist training. Come and see us!
New resources to help support activist and member learning in your branch
Branch Guide to Lifelong Learning
A fully revised and updated edition of our comprehensive guide to making the most of learning in the workplace, this explores:
- How to establish and support a branch learning team
- What to argue for when negotiating a learning agreement
- How lifelong learning can get members involved in workplace campaigns
and much more. Order it from the online catalogue: https://shop.unison.site/product/branch-guide-to-lifelong-learning/
U-Train
This visual guide to the range of activist training available through UNISON College has been updated to include new courses, make training routes clearer, and indicate which courses are mandatory following the decisions of last year’s National Delegate Conference. You can download it here https://learning.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/sites/50/2023/05/Utrain_2023.pdf and it will be available on the online catalogue shortly.
ULearn
You might also be interested to read about some of the many ways that UNISON College learning and training has contributed to organising, campaigning, and members’ experience of the union in this year’s ULearn magazine.
Find it here: https://learning.unison.org.uk/ulearn/
Advanced employment law: religion and belief discrimination
Our advanced employment law courses for reps and branch officers who deal with complex casework have always been popular. Over the last few years we’ve been introducing a series of discrimination law courses based on the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010.
The latest in this series is Religion and Belief Discrimination, which will look at issues including:
- direct discrimination against workers because of their religion;
- the position when workers need time off for religious Sabbaths, holidays or prayers;
- free speech and the limits to protection (when someone can be dismissed e.g. for inappropriate proselytising or for refusing to uphold the rights of others).
- what kind of philosophical beliefs may be protected.
There are still a few places left – sign up here: https://learning.unison.org.uk/events/religion-and-belief-discrimination/
Making Digital Skills Work
One of the major obstacles that made it harder to get a ‘Yes’ vote in recent industrial action ballots was the fact that many of our members simply don’t have an email address – meaning that reaching them with our message became much more difficult. For this reason, and for reasons of inclusion and equity, we’re inviting UNISON branches to consider how we can address issues of digital exclusion in the workplace, with an online seminar on Making Digital Skills Work. While it’s aimed particularly at UNISON learning reps, the event is open to any activist with an interest in supporting digital skills in the workplace.
https://learning.unison.org.uk/events/making-digital-skills-work/