Union learning reps: Learning to play for a win-win situation

Despite initial concerns, there is some evidence that training partnerships via the Union Learning Reps scheme are having a beneficial effect. By Simon Kent.

Training partnerships between companies and unions are providing employee opportunities that go beyond basic skills tuition. At Metroline buses, training manager Mick Hodges explains how its relationship with the Transport and General Workers Union, (T&G) which began with courses including English as a second language, has grown into the provision of a Learning Bus, delivering access to a dozen PCs for staff to use for learning activities at the company's garages.

"The Learning Bus is used by drivers, engineers, cleaners, some managers and administrative staff," says Hodges. "The training offered is not really work related, but we benefit from offering it to current staff. We also send the bus out into the wider community, where it acts as a useful recruitment tool as well."

The development of Metroline's training relationship mirrors the developing role of Union Learning Representatives (ULRs) in the UK. According to Robbie Gilbert, chief executive of the Employer's Forum on Statue and Practice (EFSP) the idea of the ULR first emerged to address basic skills problems.

However, with legislation in the Employment Act giving reps statutory and potentially expanded responsibilities from April this year, Gilbert is concerned that companies will find themselves saddled with a new union official, and little idea of how to relate to them.

"I don't believe it has ever been thought through as to how the ULRs will work with the employer's own provision of training, whether that be through Investors in People (IIP), individual learning plans or other initiatives," says Gilbert. Lack of clarity exists regarding how much time the ULR can spend on their activities, how much access to and influence on staff they should have and even how learning records created and maintained by the ULRs in the course of their work should be used, for example.

Liz Smith, head of TUC learning services, dismisses these concerns, indicating that by the time the legislation comes into effect, there will be advice and guidance on ULRs in the form of a revised Acas code, a TUC handbook and a guidebook for employers produced by the Department for Education and Skills.

"This should not be a matter for confrontation," says Susie Parsons, chief executive of the Campaign for Learning. "It is about everybody doing the best for themselves. The employers can do what's best for their businesses and unions are helping them realise that."

IIP chief executive Ruth Spellman, says: "Unions are less worried about promoting training as a 'win-win' initiative for staff and their employer. Any company with a union can use that organisation to check what training opportunities are being offeredand what kind of success training has."

The forthcoming legislation is not the only indication that the Government expects unions to have increased involvement in raising the skills of the workforce. The Union Learning Fund, set up in 1998 by the DfES, continues to fund initiatives and helped more than 28,000 people engage in learning activities last year. The fund will become the responsibility of the Learning Skills Council (LSC) from this month.

Liz Smith notes that funding is also available from the LSCs for smaller scale local initiatives, and that this kind of finance is frequently used as pump priming to release resources from elsewhere, including 'matching funds' from the employer themselves.

Company-matched cash

At British Bakeries in Newcastle, money from the Union Learning Fund was matched by the company to establish a learning centre for its 280 employees. Patrick Hutchinson, a ULR from the Bakers, Food & Allied Workers Union, has been seconded from the shopfloor to manage the centre on a full-time basis.

"The learning centre has been a joint partnership between the union and the company split down the middle," he says. "The company's side has not just been in cash - it has provided space for the centre to be set up."

With much of the course provision coming from Learndirect, the British Bakeries centre provided a good business case for management as well as increasing its workers' skills.

Four years ago, Gloucester City Services introduced an initiative to support basic skills among its predominantly manual workforce.

According to Emma Bradley, personnel officer with the section which provides street cleansing operations, provision was originally designed and delivered with union involvement as part of the service's appraisal system and work towards IIP recognition. Interestingly, policy changes meant government finance was available to support the first year of the initiative and this current year, but for the interim period, the organisation provided the funding required.

Today, a dedicated classroom contains 10 computers for staff, plus access to a tutor, offering individual support for employees who want to develop their skills up to and beyond basic literacy and numeracy standards.

"Some of our employees left school as soon as possible and came straight into their job," explains Bradley. "Now they want to improve their skills. They also want to be able to help their children with homework, so there have been benefits there too."

While Gilbert notes that trade unions do not have a substantial history of taking a training role, it appears they are more than making up for lost time.

Susie Parsons says many union leaders will take an active part in this year's Learning at Work Day on May 15, taking job swaps and hoping to better the 750,000 staff and 4,000 organisations which took part last year.

"Union activity in this area is making a difference," says Jacqui Henderson, chief executive of Central London Learning Skills Council. "If organisations can get union involvement in planning how training is to be carried out and what kind of methodology would be appropriate, you can get the right resources for the right people."

Positive outcome

The emerging message seems to be that companies should take advantage of the unions' passion for learning and establish good partnerships which have a positive knock-on outcome for both the organisation and individual staff.

"We've always had a good relationship with the T&G, and that relationship has improved since we created the Learning Bus," says Mick Hodges of Metroline. "I hope it continues into the future because it certainly seems to work. We are able to talk to the union and discuss issues rather than just confront each other."

Land Rover is working in partnership with no less than three unions to give its staff training opportunities. However, while the Associate Development Scheme (ADS) has been established and run with the help of Amicus MSF, the GMB and T&G unions, there are no Union Learning Reps involved and funding comes entirely from the company.

ADS manager Sian Hewkin explains the scheme emerged from pay negotiations in November 2001. While the company pays an amount per head, the programme runs entirely independently of the company, with strict criteria that none of the training provided should have anything to do with the employees' work for the company.

"The scheme is run entirely as a staff benefit," says Hewkin. "As long as an associate wants to take a structured course which meets our criteria, then we will encourage them to take up that learning opportunity."

Classroom resources are provided by the company, as well as through partnerships and links with external training organisations and local colleges. As a result, staff can take part in learning activities ranging from Spanish and driving lessons, to basic brick-laying and even salsa dancing.

"A lot want to learn skills such as plumbing, so they can use these skills at home," notes Hewkin. "But the programme is also about giving them new skills."

Not only do the unions take an active part in determining the provision of training through their presence on the ADS committee, they also provide a useful way of spreading awareness of the opportunities, both through shop stewards directing associates to the ADS resource and through hosting presentations from ADS staff at union meetings.

Key facts from the Employment Act 2002

Section 43 part 4 of the Employment Act 2002 provides: