- Conference
- 2008 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 25 February 2008
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes that the Government is implementing the Leitch Review of Skills through new programmes and legislation and significantly increasing the resources for attaining qualifications through workplace training.
Conference also notes the Governments ambition to increase opportunities and skills for young people by increasing the age for leaving school or training to first 17 and then 18 in England whilst introducing more apprenticeships, particularly in the public sector, and the new 14-19 Diplomas. However Conference believes that active encouragement and not compulsion will increase opportunities for 16, 17 and 18 year olds. Furthermore, the marketisation of schools, with new Academies and Trust Schools in England, works against curriculum co-operation and undermines these initiatives.
The extra investment is being routed through the employer led Train To Gain schemes and individual Learner Accounts with employers being asked to make a ‘Skills Pledge’ to train all eligible employees up to NVQ Level 2 including in the public sector. There is possibility of a legal right to training up to Level 2 if little progress is made by 2010.
This Conference regrets that the report did not recommend a right to training and has an over optimistic view of employers willingness to spread training funds and opportunities fairly to all staff and provide paid time off to train. The UNISON experience is one of training being unevenly shared amongst staff. Letting employers shape future provision even more than present will lead to a more unstable environment for staff in further, higher, adult education and careers advice and ultimately be counter productive.
The Education and Skills Bill recognises the importance of adult education, as Leitch correctly points out that 70% of the 2020 workforce have already left school, but the over concentration on qualifications has meant that other parts of adult education, including English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), have been savagely cut back.
Furthermore, Conference is disappointed that Leitch misses the opportunity to recognise and build upon the trade union contribution to creating a skilled and adaptable workforce in the UK and that Train To Gain and the Broker Service, whilst concentrating support on the lowest paid and skilled, also needs to recognise the union role in learning and the existing collective agreements.
Conference notes that whilst much of the reform, like Train To Gain, is centred on England, that many companies and organisations operate across the UK and that the administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have already many similar initiatives, for example the Welsh Skills Pledge for basic skills which Leitch used as a model.
The Scottish Government have published a Skills Strategy, strong on aspiration, which supports union learning, though there remain concerns over Careers Scotland and ESOL funding.
Conference notes that the funding of higher education is due to be reviewed in 2009. This review will see attempts by some universities to increase the cap on variable fees to astronomical levels and allow the full force of the market into higher education. This will destabilise higher education, and will threaten our members in this service group. Conference welcomes the Scottish Government’s abolition of the graduate endowment fee (a fixed amount that most graduates have to pay at the end of their degree).
Conference welcomes the Government’s commitment to increase the number of apprentices and the role that the public sector will play in delivering that. Apprenticeships are an important opportunity for young people to gain access to training and employment. Good quality apprenticeships can also benefit the public sector by helping bring new workers into the public sector ethos and providing skilled staff for the future. However, poor apprenticeships can be used as cheap labour, undercutting other workers pay and with little or no training. Conference also welcomes Labour MSP John Park’s private members bill in the Scottish Parliament to give young people aged 16-18 the right to a modern apprenticeship.
Conference reaffirms that the public service reform would be better served by building on the skills and expertise of staff and not on marketisation and privatisation.
This Conference therefore calls on the National Executive Council to:
1)raise awareness across the union of the organising and collective bargaining opportunities of the Skills Pledge to negotiating learning agreements;
2)continue to support the excellent work of our local Union Learning Reps (ULRs);
3)work with service groups to maximise pressure on employers in all sectors to commit to take the Skills Pledge to train staff to meet the national targets and press for it to cover all levels of learning, to address issues of individual entitlement, equalities, trade union consultation and disclosure of information, and to be recognised as an indication of quality in the provision of public services;
4)demand opportunities for staff in the lower pay bands to obtain access to training opportunities with paid time off to learn as part of UNISON’s equalities agenda;
5)press the government for greater union involvement in skills and regional bodies;
6)make a strong union input in to public service skills strategies, especially that of Sector Skills Councils, emphasising the need to redefine activity in terms of ’employment led’ rather than the current ’employer led’;
7)ensure that any rise in the school/training age in England is properly resourced, including the careers service, and that new apprenticeships in the public and private sector are high quality, paid fairly and available to older workers as well as younger ones;
8)publicise the successful, and union negotiated, apprenticeship scheme at North Yorkshire County Council.
9) call on branches to support the development of apprenticeship schemes within their employers where they can negotiate agreement for the following:
a)decent rates of pay for apprentices;
b)that once an apprentice reaches the standard required for the job they should be transferred to the normal pay and conditions;
c)that those paid at an apprentice rate must be in addition to regular staff, rather than a replacement;
d)that apprentices get appropriate access to training and development, with necessary paid time for training.