Workplace Learning Committees

Date: 21 April 2008

Workplace Learning Committees

Many Usdaw Learning Reps have persuaded their employers to work with them to help make learning accessible for our members. To embed this joint approach, they have found it crucial to set up joint Company/Union Learning Committees.

A Workplace Learning Committee is particularly important when developing a learning initiative on one site, or where it has been agreed to set up a Workplace Learning Centre. The Learning Committee jointly runs the learning initiative and manages the Learning Centre. Learning Committees can have a variety of names (some are called steering groups, or Lifelong Learning groups). Whatever they are called, they co-ordinate the work and ensure that both the company and the Union Learning Reps can each play an equal role in promoting access to learning for our members.

Learning Committees have now been set up in many different companies such as Littlewoods, Tesco, Sainsburys, Reality, Tibbett and Britten and Heinz.

Learning Committees have organised all sorts of accessible learning opportunities for our members. In some sites they have got involved in discussing workforce development issues. In others, the focus has been more on personal development issues as varied as introducing computer skills and basic writing skills to Spanish for absolute beginners, British sign language and guitar lessons.

Free British Sign Language courses run in Safeway stores in Scotland attracted large numbers of learners. Those participating had the satisfaction of achieving a new skill that they could use at work as well as gaining a recognised qualification.

This leaflet will help explain what a Learning Committee does, who sits on them and how to set one up, and will help you decide if a Learning Committee is right for your workplace.

Who sits on a Workplace Learning Committee

The key role of a Workplace Learning Committee is to bring together the employer and the Usdaw Learning Reps to jointly work to make learning accessible, and to help develop and sustain a learning culture in the workplace.

The form the Workplace Learning Committee may take will vary from site to site depending on the local company/union structures, the size of the site, the number of Union Learning Reps and the number of unions onsite.

Larger sites

For larger sites and where it is planned to set up an onsite Learning Centre, the Learning Committee needs to involve:

• The Usdaw Learning Reps or when there are more than five at the site, a proportion of the Reps together with reps of the other unions onsite.

• Members of the management team, including a member of the team senior enough to make decisions.

• Once a college or learning provider has been identified, a person from the college can be invited onto the committee.

• It also helps to have an Usdaw Project Worker and/or TUC Project Worker who can bring experience from other sites to the committee.

Smaller sites

For smaller sites and for retail stores, the Learning Committee can take a variety of forms. There can be anything from a regional consultative structure to less formal discussions between the reps at the site, the site personnel manager/management and the local provider.

"The joint steering group has been a catalyst for making things happen and keeping us focused. We all get a fair and equal chance to share ideas and contribute and together we decide how to take things forward. It most certainly has been the driving force behind our onsite Learning Centre."

Barrie Southern
Manager
Littlewoods, Bolton

What do Workplace Learning Committees do?

The aim of a Learning Committee is to promote, initiate, support and monitor Lifelong Learning activities at a site. To achieve this, Learning Committees do a number of things including:

• Identify learning needs through circulating and analysing questionnaires.

• Promote a range of learning initiatives that suit the site.

• Monitor and evaluate activity and feedback.

• Make learning affordable by identifying funding opportunities, and setting up an Employee Development Fund.

• Link with colleges and other providers of learning.

• Ensure effective communication with all the relevant trade union and company committees.

Everyone needs to be clear on the role of the Learning Committee. So it is important the aims and ground rules for the committee are written down and agreed by everyone. Sometimes these are called terms of reference.

Making learning affordable

One of the main barriers stopping Usdaw members getting involved in learning is the cost. One way Learning Committees help make learning affordable is to set up an Employee Development Fund, which can be used to subsidise courses.

• The fund is jointly managed by the Union Learning Reps and the company through the Learning Committee.

• The fund is used to subsidise learning that is not the employers direct responsibility (ie the fund could not be used for job-related training).

• The fund would receive money from a variety of sources - the local Learning and Skills Council, Learn Direct revenue or company contributions.

One of the major obstacles to accessing Lifelong Learning for our members is the cost. By setting up an Employee Development Fund we have been able to subsidise learning to make courses more affordable and in some cases offer them completely free!

"Having an Employee Development Fund has helped many members unlock the door to learning that previously had been locked."

Eric Knowles
Union Learning Rep
Reality, Wigan

Getting organised - setting up a Workplace Learning Committee

Usdaw has now built up considerable experience in working with employers to develop Lifelong Learning initiatives.

So, if you want to access learning for the members at your site:

• Discuss the idea with other Reps in the Branch or on the Shop Stewards Committee and/or your Area Organiser.

• Talk to other unions who may be represented onsite.

• Contact your Usdaw Lifelong Learning Project Worker, who can come and talk to the Branch or Shop Stewards Committee, and even make a presentation to your employer.

• Get samples of terms of reference from other sites.

• Attend a Union Learning Reps course. This will give practical advice on setting up a Learning Committee.

Get organised, get trained and get learning!

Workplace Learning Committees (LLL No. 5) was correct at date of publication October 2003.

Download File:
Workplace Learning Committees [ pdf ]

If you do not have the software to download this attachment you can download it here.
This is a large document - which may take some time to display.
If you have problems viewing it, you can 'download' this file by 'right-clicking' the link, and saving the document to your desktop. Then, open the saved document in the normal manner.
[ Get a player/reader for this file here ]

 Printer Friendly Page

 Email to a Friend

© 2003 (USDAW) Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers
This page: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/lifelong_learning/resource_library/1068473211_22120.html
Last Modified: Wednesday, 30-Apr-2008 23:10:35 EST