IAG partners
leicestershire and
leicester IAG partnership: GAIN
TUC Learning Services:
National
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date: Friday 15 November 2002 Press
release (1,300 words)
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a
vision for information, advice and guidance
Careers Service National Association Conference: A vision
for Information, Advice and Guidance (Skills City 15 November
2002)
Speech by Frances O’Grady, Head of Organisation and
Services Dept, Trades Union Congress
unions and learning
Over the last few months, many column inches have been
devoted to union demands over pay and conditions. What is rarely
mentioned is another union demand - that of training and
lifelong learning. Almost 7m employees are members of unions
affiliated to the TUC and increasing numbers are in jobs that
are requiring new skills. That’s a huge market of potential
learners.
This government has done more than any other previous ones to
recognise this unique union role. That is why they established
the Union Learning Fund. Over its five years, £24 m. has been
invested in over 330 union-led projects leading to innovative
approaches to training and developing the workforce. They have
ranged from providing basic
skills [glossary explanation] for bakery workers to high
level IT courses for journalists.
informed demand
Impartial and independent information, advice and guidance
[glossary explanation] can do much to stimulate the demand
for learning from adults.
Particularly those who have left school at the earliest
opportunity and who might have had a negative experience of
education. Good advice and guidance can do much to explain that
learning in the 21st century can be very different than studying
in the past. It can be much more inclusive and more related to
individual aspirations and needs.
Advice and guidance can help stimulate the low demand for
skills and qualifications which recent government reports on
workforce development highlighted.
A quarter of adults say that they have not undertaken any
learning in the last three years
A half of those who say that they have not studied in the
previous 10 years state that nothing would encourage them to
learn
Nearly a third of workers have had no formal training
opportunities offered them by their current employer
4 out of 10 businesses do not even have a training plan to
support learning
guiding learners through the jungle
There is now a much greater choice of courses and learning
methods. You can learn at a work place learning centre or at a
college; study on-line or in traditional classes.
You can fit learning around your working life and family
commitments. There are also more ways of accessing funding for
learning. More choice certainly; but also the danger of more
confusion. Imagine a bewildered new learner being asked whether
he/she wants to study an NVQ, BTEC or a Voc GCSE; open learning
or e- learning or whether to study through a Learndirect hub or
on-line in a pub …and what exactly is an IAG? The more
complicated a system is the less likely people who are in most
need of learning feel confident to access it.
Union
Learning Reps
Many of the Union Learning Fund projects have involved
training learning representatives to help their members access
learning. Over 4,000 representatives have been trained and
accredited through the Open College Network.
They do not pretend to be professional guidance workers like
yourselves but as frontline learning support workers -
signposting their members to the professionals. They have the
confidence of their members and the link with the employer and
they now have the training.
Union Learning Reps have successfully introduced a learning
culture at the workplace. But not enough employers give them the
time off for this work. That is why the TUC continually pressed
for them to be given the same statutory rights as union reps as
a whole. The Government in recognising the excellent work that
union learning reps have been doing has given them such rights
in the Employment Act 2002.
They include the following rights in respect to officials in
union recognised workplaces:
- Paid time off to undertake
their duties
- Paid time off to train for
these duties
as well as
- Time off for union members
to access the services of a Union Learning Rep
The rights will be enforceable when the ACAS code is
finalised early next year and the TUC has been closely involved
in preparing the code.
Union Learning Rep duties
Their duties as set out in the Act are wide in scope:
- Promoting the value of
learning
- Analysing training and
learning needs
- Providing union members
with information and advice
and
- Consulting the employer
about providing training and learning opportunities such as
paid time off to train, establishing a learning centre
The core courses the TUC provides for learning reps covers
these duties and includes units on front-line advice and
guidance and identifying learning needs. Union Learning Reps can
do much to:
- Help union members to
access the paid time off in the Employer Training pilots
The TUC/DfES IAG Project
The Information Advice and Guidance Partnerships set up in
1998 are key to delivering the new Matrix standard. The standard
will also help to quality proof adult guidance services in a
market where there are too many 'cowboy' providers -you know the
type 'give us £50 and we will draft you a CV which will
guarantee you a job as a dot.com millionaire'.
Unions have had involvement in their work but so far it has
been patchy. There have been exceptions, the ceramics union CATU
in Staffordshire had worked closely with their IAG
[glossary explanation] Partnership with several learning
representatives achieving NVQ3 in Advice and Guidance. The
printing union GPMU in Central Midlands had become members of
their local partnership and had committed to the old quality
standards. Connect and Bectu had developed careers counselling
arms of their unions and the engineering union Amicus has been
working closely with Sheffield IAGP on a Rapid Response to
Redundancy project.
It was quite clear there needed to be wider trade union
engagement in this whole area . That is why I very much welcomed
the new DfES/ TUC project - 'Bringing IAG to the Workplace'.
It’s a project which is aimed at strengthening the
information, advice and guidance element of trade union work by
establishing effective working relationship between IAG
partnerships, unions and employers. The £355,000 two year
project :
- involves a project workers
to undertake development work with IAG partnerships, six TUC
Learning Services regional teams and thirty targeted
employers/trade unions
- help TUC Learning Services
regional teams to promote the new quality standards to these
targeted employers/unions
- work with the DfES
[glossary explanation] and Guidance Council to develop
support structures to enable unions and employers to
register and work towards accreditation for the quality
standards.
Outcomes so far
- Over 500 union
officers/learning reps have been briefed on the standard
- Almost all IAG
partnerships working with TUC learning Services regional
teams
- Over 20 unions have joined
local IAGPs
Unions obtaining the matrix standard so far:
- GMB Learning Links St.
Helens
Support for such unions from the IAG partnerships has been
invaluable. And more unions are in the pipeline to get the
matrix standard.
conclusion
Advice and guidance and the union role in it are
pivotal to workforce development. It needs to be embedded into
initiatives such as basic skills and learndirect. Informed
quality guidance supported by employers and accessed by
employees can help raise demand, meet that demand and stimulate
a learning culture in this country.
Report (400 words) issued 25 Nov 2002
Quality street
As part of the TUC Learning Services national IAG project,
several unions have been working towards matrix Quality
Standards for Information Advice and Guidance, the new framework
launched earlier this year.
The standards are for any organisation which gives IAG
[glossary explanation]. Clearly trade unions have a big role
to play through union learning representatives.
CATU resource centre were the first to be assessed and
accredited in early September but were quickly followed by GMB
Learning Links, St Helen’s; the
GMB Branch at Leicester City Council; GMB Community
Branch, Grantham; NWTUC Learning Services Connect and the
Amicus-MSF led Lifelong Learning project at Morecambe Bay NHS
Trust.
These unions were presented with their plaques at a ceremony
in London by Minister for Adult Skills Ivan Lewis.
TUC national IAG project worker Rose Matley said: 'It is
great for these unions to achieve this award. It’s recognition
for the high quality IAG which we know is being delivered by
unions. I have worked with all these unions and know that lots
of hard work has been done to achieve these standards.'
She added that over 20 employers were also piloting the
standards, including Rolls Royce, PPG Industries, Southern Water
and Manchester City Council.
Commented Paul Humphreys, CATU resource worker: 'It’s great
to be one of the first in the country to get this. The fact that
an outside body has assessed us also reinforces the fact that we
are doing a good job.'
Details: Paul Humphreys
Tel: 01782 603688
email: phump1sc@stokecoll.ac.uk
Several other unions are hoping to gain the standards
shortly, including the GPMU Central Midlands Branch, Bectu, the
TUC National Education Centre, the CWU’s Open2all Preston, the
NUJ, the TU sector hub management, the TUC Unemployed Centre in
Luton and the RCN resource centres in north Cumbria.
Any other unions wishing to become involved can contact Rose
Matley.
Tel: 0151 236 7678.
Email: rmatley@tuc.org.uk
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