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L3: what
its about.
GMB Leicester
Learning Links L3, brought the provision of basic or essential
skill education into the workplace.
We obtained funding from DfES: – Department
of Education and Skills - via the TUC Learning Services.
We also worked in partnership with Leicester City Council
and Leicestershire County Council, to recruit and train
learner reps, so that we could address the lack of basic
skill provision for employees that had learning needs.
To empower them to stay abreast of modern employment
practices armed with a survival toolkit called further
education.
Many employees had left school devoid of
qualifications and the necessary reading, writing and
calculating skills that many of us take for granted.
They hid their problems from their work colleagues and
survived, but time was running out and something had
to be done to correct this imbalance. We also worked
with the employers to allow and arrange some time off
to learn without loss of pay.
We used the employers "duty of care" under
Health and Safety Regulations and other care
responsibilities to get them on board.
Full co-operation to the project was given
by City Landscapes, City Cleansing and City Catering
within the then Commercial Services Department. The Museums
Service and other departments allowed applicants to come
forward to learn, and all supported the applicants by
treating their requests as confidential.
County learners were not fully supported
by their council management but despite this, many took
advantage of becoming learner reps and encouraged their
colleagues within manual grades, to achieve qualifications
in the area of ICT. Many were initially afraid of computing
but soon became willing and capable students.
- Andy Wilson is the present county
learning coordinator.
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We used Mackworth Trade Union Education
to train Learner reps and arrange accreditation
via the OCN credits.
- Credit to Nick
Palmer and all at Trade Union Education, Vaughan
- College, Leicester,
for a "pioneering learner representative's course",
- and continuing
support.
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Nick also served as the original
Project Manager, supporting and encouraged us all during those early days
of negotiations and project continuance.
- Simon Ferrar continued
the management until he had to return to
- teaching and that
is when I had to put into practice what I had learned
- from them and manage
the project as well as coordinating the City
- council side of the
project.
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- Without the support
of Netta Brown as Learner Rep and Project
- Support Worker, Karen
Hands, Paul Heatherley, Ros Melrose, Andy
- Wilson and George
Portwood as Learner Reps, my task would have
- been all the more
daunting.
- Teamwork paid dividends
as we supported each other to ensure the
- work continued, learners
were recruited, supported and their education
- with time off
arranged.
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Leicester College and County
Educational establishments were selected to provide at
no cost to trade union members a series of lessons, following
expert needs assessment, a series of usually 20 hour
sessions, to address lack of literacy, numeracy, language,
communication and IT skills.
External evaluation confirmed
that both employers and employees benefited form the
scheme.
The Importance of Lifelong Learning
The government through various initiatives
is committed to the concept of "lifelong learning", that
is, it is important for everyone, no matter what their
age or employment status, to continue with learning throughout
their lives.
An increasing number of people are seeing
the benefits of lifelong learning.
Jobs for life are a thing of the past. People
are likely to change jobs many times during their working
lives. They will have a continual need to learn new skills
and new ways of working.
Skills and qualifications are increasingly
in demand. The proportion of unskilled and semi-skilled
jobs is decreasing, and is a continuing trend. Those
who are unwilling to adapt to change and learn new skills
will be at a disadvantage.
Employees with the right skills will be valued
employees. Helping the employer to improve productivity
and retain jobs in-house, thus reducing layoffs, redundancies
and the need for outsourcing.
Learning also helps employees achieve personal
development and turn ambitions into reality.
The labour
market is the supply and demand of labour-
matching vacancies
to qualified applicants.
Employer efficiency drives, brought about
by de-skilling jobs, multi tasking, constant change driven
by Best Value Reviews and lack of proper government funding
mean that redundancies are inevitable and those improperly
prepared or equipped will be the major casualties.
Skills gaps due in part by lack of employer
investment in training schemes are compounded by employees
not able to take advantage of new work, due to a lack
of reading, understanding ITC, team working and communication
skills.
There has been a steady shift away from manual
and low-skilled occupations towards higher level occupations
with the increase of computer technology and more
mechanisation introduced into the workplace.
Employees will need to take control and responsibility
for their own skills development and career planning,
as employers demand flexibility and adaptability from
their workforce.
Employees will need not only job related
qualifications but also key skills in communication,
problem solving and improving ones own learning and ability
to adapt to change.
Flexible working trends are becoming more
common place and employees need to be able to manage
their time available to work and to be with their family
if the quality of personal life is not to suffer.
This is why GMB Leicester Learning Links
has developed partnerships with Leicestershire and Leicester
IAG, Learning & Skills Council, TUC Learning Services
and others, to have expert information, advice and guidance
available to the trade union members of the workforces.
We have obtained DfES / ULF funding for basic
skill provision within the workplace and delivered many
hours of workplace learning opportunity to employees
of Leicester City & Leicestershire County Councils
over the last 2 years.
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We distributed many ILAs (individual learning accounts)
as part of our
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initial project, until they were discontinued, and
would appreciate
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feedback as to how these were used.
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We along with other trade
unions, pioneered the role of Union Learner Representatives
who will soon have rights in employment law to have time
off for appropriate, accredited TUC Learner Rep training
and to contact learners within their workplace, with
bargaining rights with the employer for time off to learn
and promote workplace learning.
- see: workplace
learning representatives
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MATRIX ACCREDITATION
We as a GMB branch have achieved
the MATRIX quality standard for information, advice and
guidance services delivered by us.
The MATRIX award is given
following detailed assessment by the Guidance Accreditation
Board in the application of the 10 point MATRIX requirements
to IAG in education and work.
We cannot rest on our laurels
as we need to be re-assessed every 2 years and show steady
improvement in application by all of our representatives
that serve our growing membership.
This quality benchmarked award
has enabled us to become full members of our local IAG
partnership network.
We now work within the Guidance
Accreditation Councils’ Code of principles in service
delivery and management.
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