Sustainability and mainstreaming of union learning activity

Trade unions are increasingly building towards sustaining learning activity by planning strategically for lifelong learning and workforce development within their union structures.

• This often involves briefing and working with union officials and other union representatives to incorporate learning and skills within wider union roles and union branches and regions.
• The role of ULRs needs to be mainstreamed within the union and incorporated within bargaining structures and agreements. Working towards this is an essential feature and focus of ULF and will be a crucial element in sustaining the work commenced within ULF projects.
• Unions should be planning to devote core staffing to the promotion of learning to support the role of ULRs and union work on learning and skills.

A further important emphasis of the ULF is the consolidation of work and approaches developed in previous years. Consolidation might involve, for example:

• methods and materials developed by one region of the union being rolled out to the rest of the union.
• unions sharing and disseminating their experiences with other unions and unionlearn.
• one or more unions adapting and embedding the approach and methods piloted by another union.
• the development of sectoral approaches involving one or more unions and building on earlier ULF work.