Workplace A trade union issue Deri Bevan (Wales TUC) Mike Wilson - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Essential Skills in the Workplace – A trade union issue

Deri Bevan (Wales TUC) Mike Wilson (GMB)

The essential skills of Wales

Essential Skills are considered as those skills required for progression and success in education, the workplace and life in general. They include:

• Communication (Literacy, reading,

writing, listening)

• Application of Number (numeracy)
• Digital Literacy (ICT) * in 2015
• Employability Skills * in 2015

In 2010:

• 28% of adults in Wales

have literacy problems

• 32% of adults in Wales

have numeracy problems

• 47% of the above are within

the workforce

• This skills deficit costs the

Welsh economy almost £600million a year

An issue for a country

Why concentrate on workplace essential skills? Historical context Socio-economic context Adult and workplace skills Devolution Social Partnership Welsh adult education policy And….It’s good for business

• Learning is absolutely central to union

values: Pay and working conditions, Health and safety, Equalities, Workplace morale, Access to training, Industrial relations

• Equality of Opportunity
• Economic benefits
• Health benefits
• Social benefits

The ‘unique position’ of trade unions to deliver essential skills:

• Trusted role
• Direct access to employers
• Access to funding
• Embedded in collective bargaining

and negotiated agreements

Why is essential skills an issue for trade unions?

History of union led essential skills in Wales

• Formally recognised as a role for TUs in 1999
• Statutory recognition for the Union Learning Representative (ULR)
• Established the Wales Union Learning Fund shortly after
• Influential in Government’s early policy (Basic Skills)
• Essential Skills and Employability

The union learning model

• Frontline advice and guidance carried out by ‘ULR’ role
• Signpost to funded learning
• Negotiate paid release
• Good quality and flexible delivery model
• Learning takes place ‘on-site’
• Reduce barriers to learning through collective bargaining
• Ensure equality of opportunity for all
• Advocacy based promotion - employer to employer and peer to peer

Impact of union led essential skills

20 years of union led essential skills learning

• 23,000+ directly funded learners
• Over 15,000 of these gaining qualifications in Essential Skills
• Around 92,000 working adults supported into learning
• 185 union led projects funded by Welsh Government
• Engaged with over 1200 employers
• Establishing learning programmes directly in nearly 2900 workplaces.

Film link here

Essential Skills – Welsh Water

Report: 2018 - 2019

(progressive figures up to the end of March 2019)

Essential Skills

Numbe ber of Qualifi lificat atio ions ns

Total No: of Qualifications 1274 143 253 253 878

AO AO N CO CO M ICT ICT

Essential Skills

Learner ers by Busines ness Area

Total No: of Learners by Business Area 656

51 51 9 27 27 9 6 292 292 258 258 4

Essential Skills

Learne rners by Geograph raphical l Area Total No: of Learners 656

78 78 60 60 90 90 187 241 50 100 150 200 250 300 North West North East Mid South West South East North West North East Mid South West South East