Dot Com Learning in Croydon
Employees at the Tesco dot com store in Croydon are used to delivering for customers. Now their new ULRs are delivering learning for them in store. It’s all part of the new learning initiative set up by Usdaw mobile ULR, Peter Chalkin to reinvigorate the “Checkout Learning” campaign.
The "Checkout Learning" campaign is part of Usdaw's national learning strategy to encourage and support members in the retail sector back into learning.
“We have 7 new ULRs” said Peter, “3 of who are already trained and the others are set up for their introductory course in January. All the ULRs are really keen, so I’m really looking forward to the future.”
Mike Smith, an experienced rep who has been a ULR for 6 months is co-ordinating the campaign.
He said “We have advertised a couple of things and got a great response, especially for English and Maths. We decided to run an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) course first. We have a pretty mixed bunch of people here and there are lots who don’t have English as their first language, so it’s a really important thing to get started.”
“There are 2 courses running on a Tuesday at the moment, 12.00-2.00 and 2.00-400 to fit in with the shift patterns” Mike said, “We have about 20 people involved at the moment and I think they are getting a lot of out of it”.
Course tutor Liz Kirson from Tower Hamlets is also enjoying the class. “It’s always nice to teach courses in the workplace as most of the students are really committed” she said, “and this group is a really nice mix who work well together. Gracjan is a real star as his English is quite good and he helps others with their problems.”
“I learnt some English at school in Poland” he says, “but this a chance for me to improve the parts that I am not too good at – like my tenses. It’s also good to explain things to other people if they are not sure – it helps them and it helps me too.”
Gracjan would like to get a recognised qualification as it would help with future jobs, but Agniesza and Izabel are just happy to learn and get the most out of the course.
“I understand a little English at the moment” said Agniesza “but I need to get better at reading and writing.”
“It’s a good course” said Izabel “and even better that we can do it in the workplace”
The company is fully supportive of the learning initiative.
“They have been really good so far” says Mike, “The HR Manager, Katy Hartson makes sure I get release to arrange the rooms for the ESOL course and the HR Department do all the photo copying for us and make sure the students get all the necessary materials like pens, pencils and paper. The company also provide the facilities for our computer course, run by another of our ULRs, Gregory Charles”.
So what’s next?
“I’d like to run a Maths course once the ESOL course has finished” said Peter “we’ve also had lots on interest in computer courses and sign language”.
And Peter is determined it won’t stop there!
“What I really want to achieve is an on-site learning centre, accessible to all the staff, regardless of their shift patterns”, said Peter. “This was the first dot com store in the country and we have over 700 employees working here, that’s more than some distribution centres".
“What’s more, numbers are growing all the time” added Peter, “so the learning centre would be real positive investment in the skills and training of employees”.
Looks like the start of another campaign!
