UNISON members are now able to register their interest in attending activist training via My.UNISON. This will cut out the need for paper and online forms and address some of the associated GDPR issues. In addition it will greatly simplify the process for both members and branches as well as UNISON regional and national education staff.
This option only applies to activist training. Member learning courses won’t be included as these don’t need branch approval for attendance.
When a member registers their interest in a course, branch WARMS users will be able to see this on the system and the branch can approve or reject the application. Once this has been done, the approval or rejection is automatically recorded on the online system used by UNISON education staff.
Accepting the application indicates that the branch agrees to pay any associated branch fees should the member be allocated a place on the training (where fees apply). Any fees will be clearly stated on the course information page on the system.
Only branch officers can approve or refuse activist training applications, which are then updated on the system by the branch WARMS user. Which branch officers have this authority will depend on the branch rules; however, the Branch Secretary, Branch Chair and Branch Education Co-ordinator would usually be able to approve or reject activist training applications.
When the WARMS user updates the approval status of an application, they will also fill in the ‘By whom’ and ‘date’ fields, indicating the branch officer who made the decision rather than the person updating the record (of course in some cases this might be the same person).
Where an expression of interest has been approved the member will be added to the list for consideration by the course organisers. Activist courses are often oversubscribed, and places are not guaranteed until the organisers of the training have confirmed them.
Guidance notes for WARMS users on how this process works on the system have been circulated.