UNISON learning reps from across the South East region gathered in Guildford for a network day earlier this month. Vicki Gibbs, area organiser for education and equalities, organised the event, and spoke about the ‘many joys’ of lifelong learning. The learning reps discussed their experiences so far. Presenting learning as a ‘win-win’ opportunity for employers […]
Learning News
Over the last few months, developers have been working to create a new way for UNISON activists and members to apply for our training courses. Your region will be testing this new facility over the next few weeks by making it possible to register online for some courses. How do I apply for a course? […]
Six months ago, Teresa Crichton, communications officer at Bristol branch, set up a recruitment and learning stall – but she found it difficult to engage either with UNISON members or with non-members. So she changed her approach: she set up three more stalls at different locations across the city, and gave out chocolates with an […]
Update (December 2020) The team from the Marchmont Observatory has produced a further report exploring the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on public sector skills needs. It explores two of the areas highlighted in the previous findings, digital skills and management and supervisory skills, as well as looking at the wider effects of the pandemic […]
This Thursday, UNISON will release the detailed findings of a significant new piece of research into the learning needs, the hopes and fears of workers in the public services. The University of Exeter’s Marchmont Observatory carried out the research on behalf of UNISON, with a survey sent to members over the winter of 2018/19. Over 38,000 […]
For many of us, there are very real barriers when it comes to doing work if we have a disability or are neurodiverse. This is why we’ve been working with Diversity and Ability to create a great new guide of useful technologies to use in the workplace to make work easier. We’ve got tools to […]
This week it’s Get Online Week and UNISON, along with other organisations across the UK, will be supporting people to get online and take part in the digital world. It’s estimated that over 5 million working adults lack the full set of basic digital skills – so with the rise of digitisation and automation in […]
There are over 5 million people in the UK who’ve never been online, and a staggering 11.9 million people who don’t have the essential digital skills to navigate life and work. As jobs and the workplace become more digitised workers with low or no digital skills risk being excluded both in the workplace and in […]
For the third consecutive year UNISON Eastern ran its Activist Summer School from 12-16 August, which saw the region once again taking over all available teaching rooms at Cambridge Professional Development Centre. This year saw an increase in courses offered and an incredible number of activists and members attending. From New Stewards, to Dyslexia in […]
National Numeracy is calling on the nation to check their maths skills this September. They have renamed the month ‘Checktember’ and will be encouraging everyone to go online and check that they have the number skills needed for everyday life and work. Research released earlier in the year revealed a third of us wish we were better at […]