Reaching the hardest to reach

With the help of Union Learning Fund, Unite continues to show its dedication to London’s migrant workers and domestic workers by helping them overcome barriers to learning and play a major role in their communities and workplaces. Every weekend, 150 workers gather to study IT and take literacy and numeracy courses as well as English for Speakers of Other Languages courses (ESOL).

So successful has the initiative been, through positive word-of-mouth, that Unite has had to move the courses out of its Transport House building into the more spacious surroundings of the nearby Faraday House, where learners can spread out over six classrooms, in a 30 piece IT suite, and take advantage of the student lounge.

In addition, the young members section of the Justice for Cleaners campaign, where many of the migrant workers first made contact with the union, runs workshops for up to 40 young people on photography, video, art, drama, music, dance, food and Spanish.

Steve Rowlatt, Unite National Union Learning Organiser said: “We couldn’t have achieved any of this without the backing of the Union Learning Fund. The workers themselves couldn’t communicate with their employers, colleagues or indeed with the union around industrial issues, but now they’ve taken the courses, they have a bit more confidence and are really taking the agenda forward”.

Without the support of Union Learning Fund and the commitment of the Unite union learning representatives, the migrants would have to fall back on the courses run by their employers, where take up has always been low, or alternatively, find the money from their minimum wage pay packets to sign up with a local college.