Making Learning Affordable

Making learning accessible and affordable has proved to be a winning strategy in shopworkers’ union USDAW’s national learning campaign in the retail sector, Check  Out Learning. From January to December 2008, the Eastern Division of the union held eleven in-store promotions, recruited 130 new members, identified ten new shop stewards and one new safety rep, as well as 15 new union learning representatives (ULRs). More than 400 questionnaires used to assess learning needs were completed by workers, and learning is now taking place in eight stores, including Tesco’s Harrow Store.
Project Worker Phil Gander explained: “The Check Out Learning campaign began three years ago and is running in seven USDAW regions across the UK, with project workers like me supporting the campaign. As many retail staff are paid at barely more than the National Minimum Wage, and are often working part-time hours and shifts, the aim of the campaign is to bring in accessible and affordable learning into stores.  The campaign also aims to identify potential new ULRs so that they can be brought into the union organisation in retail stores and work with shop stewards and other union reps to build and sustain learning there.”
The campaign targets stores where the union has a partnership or recognition agreement with employers, such as Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsburys, there are more than 250 workers with a reasonable level of union membership, and there is union organisation with shop stewards or ULRs in place. 
The project worker liaises with other officers in the union before meeting with Human Resources (HR) the Store Manager and the union reps in store to get Skills for Life courses and in some cases English as a Second Language (ESOL) where a need is identified, up and running.
At Tesco’s Harrow store, the initiative kicked off with a promotional day involving the Check Out Learning Roadshow complete with bespoke posters and free gifts, to encourage workers on both day and night shifts to come and find out about the learning opportunities on offer, and complete an initial learning assessment with college tutors from Brent Adult Community Education and ULRs. The company gives paid release for workers to attend the promotional day and complete assessments; and the union brings in a team including experienced ULRs from other stores, people from its Organising  academy and regional officials to help promote the learning.  The day was also used as an organising and recruitment opportunity, with workers asked if they were union members, and if they would like to get more involved in the union.
According to Phil Gander, USDAW project worker, one important aspect of the initiative has been to keep the momentum going.
“You are looking at people who have often been failed by the education system and they don’t need to be failed again. It is important that we deliver what we promise,” he says. “A two-sided questionnaire was used during the promotional day and courses were booked in advance on the day so that the momentum was not lost. I then sent out reminder letters to ensure that everyone turned up and the courses ran. We have looked at using an E-bus to deliver learning, but we found that a combination of breakdowns and school holidays could cause disruptions to the running of the courses and we don’t want people to lose interest.”
The workforce at Harrow includes many Asian workers and part-time working mothers. Although people’s level of spoken English is very high, they were keen to develop their general literacy skills.  A literacy course embedded with IT level 2 evening course was therefore set up and 23 people attended the first course, seven of whom want to progress to the next level.
Again, to keep up momentum and get training underway, Phil explained: “Those learners who were the most straightforward to set up training for attended the first course, while other workers could see that something was happening. There will be another two courses set up which will get underway once the ULRs have negotiated flexible working, under the “Time for You” agreement with the company, and negotiated shift changes where things are more complicated in terms of people being able to attend courses.”
 The training is delivered on site in the workers’ own time, with the company providing a training room, and they are free.