Putting it on the calendar: learning and equalities at Loughborough University

Pride Month may be over but for Collina Angus, UNISON learning rep at Loughborough University, equalities are a year-round passion. That’s something that she’s combined with learning to create a dynamic, engaging series of online events, inviting experts to share their knowledge with members at the university. She began last October with an event for […]

“The impact is immense”

In this guest blog Carol McGrath, UNISON learning project worker in Leeds, explains why union learning is so important to her. I have always had a passion for lifelong learning and I strongly believe learning enables people to live a happier and fulfilled life. A few years ago, happy with my career path and content […]

Learning through the coronavirus crisis and beyond: ULearn 2020 is out now

The publication of our magazine celebrating all things UNISON learning is a highlight of every year. Uniquely, 2020’s edition has been published in an online-only format – but it’s still filled with stories showcasing some of the highlights from a year of UNISON learning. This year’s edition includes: our new partnership with the Staff Skills […]

Delivering learning at a distance: tools for ULRs

While we know that many of our members and reps will be extremely busy continuing to deliver our public services, or are busier than usual with caring responsibilities, others are on furlough or self-isolating and find themselves with unexpected spare time.   Meanwhile, people’s natural creativity and adaptability has been evident as they’ve been adapting their pastimes to life at home and sharing them […]

From a sweet incentive to lunch and learn: making learning appetising in Bristol

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 […]

Skills for the Future

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 […]

Expanding the Wranx learning offer

Over the last year, UNISON has been working with Wranx to provide free bite-sized learning modules online. We started with Functional Skills and GCSE English and maths, but have added more topics since then. Wranx is an online training tool that can be accessed on any device and uses the simple scientific idea of Spaced […]

Council’s Chief Executive meets with Apprentices for National Apprenticeship Week 2019

We’ve been following the Apprentice Learning Network at Poole Borough Council for a while now, and we’ve been consistently impressed by the way that the apprentices have supported each other, made use of the resources available to them, and promoted learning opportunities. In this piece Freya Kendall, one of the founder members, explains how the […]

“I have found my voice”

Elizabeth Cameron is a UNISON activist and a member of UNISON’s National Black Members Committee. When she was elected onto the National Executive Council she wanted to understand more about the trade union movement. She spotted an advert in Labour Review magazine for Ruskin College, and found out that she could apply for a UNISON […]

Not just for when things go wrong: the value of union learning

Five UNISON learning reps (ULRs) from across the union shared their experiences at a fringe event at national delegate conference in Brighton last month. Chris Tansley, from the national executive council, introduced the event, which also included a ‘have a go’ session where participants tried out some of the online learning opportunities offered by UNISON’s […]