Promoting Learning in Cheshire & West Chester
The objective of the Union Learning Fund funded project, Learning and Skills for All Fund project at Cheshire West & Chester Council was to recruit and train a team of union learning representatives in order to embed a learning culture across the council, prioritising learning support for the local government’s 6,000 employees across the Council.
UNISON, GMB and UNITE are working in partnership with Cheshire & West Chester, unionlearn’s Trade Union Education unit at South Cheshire College, Anglesea Training and Adult & Community Learning.
ULRs trained through the project to date, have covered predominantly health & social care but their role has cascaded into other areas such as operational services, transport and business support.
In light of the geographical area the Council covers, there was a need to establish more than one learning centre facility and it was therefore agreed to set up a number of ‘learning zones’, initially eight were established and linked with adult & community learning teams across all the areas of the council.
ULRs were given the immediate task of prioritising the promotion of Skills for Life, English and numeracy. Basic ICT Skills were also considered to be a key priority for the project and learners were encouraged to take up opportunities to enrol on PTTLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Sector) course and the ‘Train the Trainer’ courses.
The challenge was to establish a learning culture in the current economic climate, which was from time to time quite challenging but the effort displayed by the people involved was equally rewarding and recognised in the Investors in People’ recognition.
The immediate results of the project can be demonstrated by the Council having a more confident and flexible workforce who have acquired a wide range of skills as a direct result of the project.
By establishing a team of trainers, more localised and flexible learning was able to take place and specific outcomes included:
21 staff have completed the ‘Train the Trainer’ course
4 people have completed PTTLS
33 staff have completed Level 2 Literacy/numeracy qualifications from January – June this year, and a rolling programme of Skills for Life has been established.
Involvement from the council has been good, they provided the; Learning Zones, release time for ULRs to undertake their role, including time to attend ULR forums which take place on a monthly basis. The Council’s Strategic Group has also been established and a learning agreement was recently signed on October 18th.
Dawn Sweeney, Unison Project Co-ordinator, said;
‘By co-ordinating this project I have acquired many new skills myself and whilst I have encountered a number of challenges, it has been very rewarding. We have more than exceeded our objectives and outcomes and have helped to establish a learning culture which hopefully can be enjoyed in many years to come. We are now looking at creating a more sustainable approach to learning and are negotiating a Collective Learning Fund and have set up our own UK Online centre, with over 50 learners already having signed up for Literacy and numeracy courses in September’.
