Unionlearn offers support to VCS

Unionlearn, which has brought benefits to workers and employers across the country for more than a decade, is now looking to take its work into community and non-union workplaces, including the VCS. Over the past 12 years more than 26,000 union learning reps have been trained and 740,000 people have been given training and learning opportunities via their union. Through the role of the union learning rep in the workplace, barriers to learning and training have been overcome to enable people at work to gain the confidence they need to learn new skills and set them on the road to fulfilling their potential. Employers have seen the benefits of improved staff morale, reduced absence, improved retention and better customer service. Learning in the workplace spreads across all types and levels, from taster opportunities to degree level and beyond, including improving English, Maths or IT skills through full qualifications or more informal learning opportunities. Unionlearn, the TUC's learning and skills organisation, contracted by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to support the development of union workplace learning, now wants to take this good practice into the community and non-unionised workplaces. So far, this has included working with trade unions, in partnership with a local council, to run workshops as part of a summer job club for young people; providing a service to equivalence overseas qualifications for migrant workers; and union workplace learning centres opening their doors to friends and families of union members. If you are an employer in the VCS interested in this approach to learning or seeking to develop opportunities for your staff, volunteers and community community visit www.unionlearn.org.uk or email Mary Alys, Unionlearn Regional Manager, at malys@tuc.org.uk.