Early Years
The trade union movement has a long and proud history of bringing education to working people.
Back in 1997 with the election of the Labour government, strategic partnerships between government and the trade union movement were forged. This saw the establishment of Union Learning Funds in England, Scotland and Wales and the beginnings of the development of the Union Learning Representative role.
In 1999, the government in Northern Ireland published: Lifelong Learning: A new learning culture for all. This document acknowledged the vital role of trade unions in the lifelong learning agenda in Northern Ireland.
Subsequently, the Department for Employment and Learning funded NIC-ICTU to develop a programme of work around the lifelong learning agenda. This led to the creation of the Union Learning Fund for Northern Ireland in 2002. The Department committed funding for 3 year period and invited unions to apply. This first round saw six unions apply; USDAW, Amicus, Unison, CWU, UCATT and ATGWU.
Skills & Qualifications
The main focus of the original six union-led projects was to promote Essential Skills qualifications in numeracy literacy and ICT to the workforce.
For 20 years, Essential skills has been key priority for the vast majority of ULF projects. With the help of the ULF, unions have run innovative and engaging projects which have enabled over 10,500 workers to gain their first qualifications in English, maths and IT. We have helped build social cohesion by enabling migrant workers to study ESOL.
And that’s not all what we do. We have supported workers through apprenticeship programmes and other upskilling or industry recognised qualifications. We have helped staff progress through Continuous Professional Development programmes. In fact, over 35,000 have completed other up-skilling qualifications, industry recognised qualifications, or CPD. Many of these workers were engaging in learning for the first time since leaving formal education.
We have supported union learners who have continued their studies into higher education. We have supported workers facing redundancy, helping them to write a CV, improve their interview skills, job search and to access learning opportunities to ensure that they are job ready. We have taken down the barriers to learning - often faced by women, migrant workers and disabled workers. We have offered information, advice and guidance to thousands more.
The projects have a proven track record in engaging workers and employers into reskilling and upskilling agenda. Promoting Lifelong learning is at the core of what we do.
Each year, the Union Learning Fund has continued to grow. It has helped to improve the skills of workers in companies large and small, in the public and private sectors and across all areas of our economy. Multiply this by the 20 years that the ULF has been in business, and you begin to get a sense of what an enormous impact the fund has made.
How have we achieved this?
Central to its success over two decades has been the network of union learning reps (ULRs) who have been trained to provide support, encouragement, advice and guidance that many co-
workers have needed to re-start their learning journeys.
ULRs have demonstrated that one of their greatest strengths is their ability to engage and support learners. Workers are far more open to talking to ULRs about their struggles with English, maths or IT rather than their supervisors, managers or HR staff.
Behind the ULRs are the project managers, many of whom cut their teeth in workplace learning projects as learners or ULRs. Employed by their unions, they have gone on to share and develop their knowledge and expertise running successful and innovative work place learning projects.
Delivering the learning have been tutors from a wide range of providers, including all of Northern Irelands FE colleges, The Open University and before their closure in Belfast, The Workers’ Educational Association (WEA).
We have worked with many other organisations who have helped to deliver training and offer support to union learners such as the Skills Network, The Reading Rooms, Global Horizons Skills, Utopian learning, Quick reads, The Careers Service, Libraries NI, The Construction Industry Training Board, National Numeracy Challenge - the list is endless!
Where courses have been delivered in workplaces they have often been run in dedicated learning centres, usually kitted out by partnerships between employers, unions and the ULF.
Political Support
The Union Learning Fund has always retained cross party support over the past 20 years - for one very simple reason: it works!
At the NIC ICTU conference in 2008, Sir Reg Empy, the then Minister for Employment and Learning was addressing the delegates - he said:
The theme for this conference “Organise to Succeed” is an apt description of what Trades Unions are doing to further skills development. At the forefront of this is the Union Learning Fund. I congratulate the Union Learning Reps and the unions for all they do to encourage people into learning. Whilst politicians and civil servants can do this and that, it’s usually those nearer to individuals who can influence them positively, and unions are well placed to influence their members – they will listen to you!
Stephen Farry was also a great supporter of the work of the Union Learning Fund as DEL’s Minister. we have fond memories of him announcing the funding at conference each year without him giving any prior warning to his team of civil servants! He often praised the work of the union learning reps – At one UL conference he said:
ULRs have helped to negotiate and broker learning agreement opportunities which deliver real and tangible benefits to the learners and the business. Their success is rooted in their familiarity on the shop-floor, and without them, the enormous growth in workplace learning would not have happened.
Politicians, business leaders and educational institutions have all recognised that our model of training union learning reps to engage all sorts of learners that other organisations cannot reach is both successful and cost-effective. For a relatively modest outlay of public money, the fund has successfully achieved and sometimes exceeded targets agreed with the department.
The success of the Union Learning Fund offers an important lesson for any government that wants to improve skills and education in this country. Many of the other initiatives that have been tried over the years were top-down and sometimes well-meaning but not always thought through.
The ULF isn’t like that: because the membership base of the trade union movement is rooted in the organisation of workplaces, we have lots of feet on the ground. And our learners are not only union members: it’s their colleagues, their families, their friends who also gained access to learning opportunities too
The ULF was a good idea 20 years ago - that has become a great success story today. Everyone who has played their part– politicians, civil servants, employers, union officers, project managers, tutors, ULRs and above all else - the union learners themselves– should feel very proud of what we have achieved and what we will continue to achieve. Put simply Union Learning Works!
