Wendy Hudson is a local organiser based in UNISON’s Glasgow office. Kathleen Jowitt is an assistant education officer at UNISON Centre. But they’ve got something else in common beyond working for UNISON – they’re both award-winning authors, Wendy for Four Steps, which won a Golden Crown Literary Society Debut Author Award, and Kathleen for Speak Its Name, […]
literacy
Lyndsey Marchant, regional learning and development organiser in the North West, had received several inquiries from members about creative writing courses. So she approached Writing on the Wall, a Liverpool-based organisation with a particular focus on outreach and diversity. She explains, Working with Writing On The Wall was a natural fit: WOW is a well known organisation […]
Janice Parker is a learning rep in UNISON Corby branch, part of the UNISON Northants Learning cluster. In this blog she explains how she worked with author Louise Jensen to put on a creative writing workshop for UNISON members from across Northamptonshire. Creative writing is something that I am very interested in myself as I write poetry, […]
Schools may have broken up for the summer, but for us learning is something that happens all year round. And it can be useful to concentrate on the basics – ‘functional skills’, as they’re called – English, maths, and digital skills. Here are some great free resources to help you and your colleagues do that. […]
Matthew Hodgson is a UNISON learning rep and branch young members’ officer for United Utilities in the North West. In this blog he talks about his own experiences as a learner and explains how branches can reach out to young workers with learning opportunities. As a young person I was sadly treated with a stereotypical […]
This first week of October is Dyslexia Awareness Week. Dyslexia affects around 10% of the population, and mainly influences the way that people process, store and retrieve information. The theme this year is ’21st Century Dyslexia’, focusing on technology that can assist people in the workplace, at school and at home. Find out more at the […]
UNISON was delighted to host the launch event for the Reading Agency‘s 2018-19 Reading Ahead challenge at UNISON Centre on 13 September. Reading Ahead is an initiative that encourages less confident readers to choose six pieces (which could be books, articles, poems, blog posts…) and write a brief review of them. It aims to get people […]
ISS employees based at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital have started a course in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), with the support of UNISON. On Tuesday 4th of September, ISS staff members took the assessment test for the ESOL/functional skills course. This was possible with the support of UNISON, who negotiated with the employer […]
We have a calendar of great learning events lined up for you this autumn. Take a look – there’s something for everyone! For branch education co-ordinators… For the first time ever, we’re holding a seminar to bring branch education co-ordinators together from across UNISON. This is a chance to network, to find out what’s new […]
Delegates gathered to discuss the future of learning at a fringe meeting of UNISON’s national delegate conference in Brighton last week. And the winning entry of our first ever writing competition was revealed. Judges Genevieve Clarke (The Reading Agency), Andrew Jennison (UNISON learning representative, De Montfort University), Kathleen Jowitt (UNISON staff member and award-winning author) and […]