General Council Meetings - The STUC

Recommendations

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28 groups will be reviewed, in order to determine the role they will have in the new Scottish Union Academy. In the new Scottish Union Academy structure, in addition to the Board and a Partners’ Advisory Group, there will be a Union Advisory Group. This will be a forum for affiliates to contribute to the work of the Academy. It is envisaged that this Group will replace the STUC Learning Forum. LOCAL LEARNING FORUMS Local Learning Forums meet regularly in several areas of the country, including Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Aberdeen, Fife, Inverness, Orkney, Caithness and Shetland. Due to workplace closures and other issues, a forum in Fort William is no longer viable at this time. The purpose of the forums is to provide support to local ULRs and to encourage cross union work in areas of promotion, joint provision and engagement with local organisations involved in learning. Through the forums, ULRs engage in wider trade union campaigns and issues, such as the General Council’s “Unions into Schools” programme. The NUJ’s Local Union History course, launched in April 2007, is also supported by the forums. An event on Migrant Workers was held by the Lanarkshire forum in June 2007. Through the Scottish Union Academy, the SALLT will continue to support the established forums in the coming year. INDIVIDUAL LEARNING ACCOUNTS SCOTLAND The General Council, through the SALLT, has continued to support the take up of Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs). Those affiliates with SULF projects have, over the last two years, arranged for several hundred union members to take out ILAs. Joint branded promotional materials, between ILA Scotland, the STUC and affiliates, continue to be produced, and a union specific newsletter was produced by ILA Scotland in November and December 2007. The General Council welcomes the changes made to the ILA Scotland scheme in 2007, as it means more choice for learners. The range of courses eligible for the £100 ILA Scotland scheme has been extended to include all subject areas, not just computer courses. The extension, which was prompted by feedback from learning providers and learners, is a pilot scheme which will be reviewed regularly. It has a particular focus on the soft skills, such as communication, customer handling and problem solving skills. The £100 scheme extension applies to: ● courses up to and including Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Level 6 (Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQ) Level 3); and ● courses leading to qualifications with SCQF or to recognised certification, or to accredited units, or modules within such qualifications or certification. Changes have also been made to the £200 ILA Scotland scheme. The existing restriction that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) courses must lead to formal qualifications, or recognised certification, has been removed. The General Council, whilst welcoming the increase in the income threshold to £18,000, is still concerned that this cut off point does not recognise the educational needs of many union members. During the year, through the SALLT, some affiliates took part in a pilot project with ILA Scotland to widen the access to the ILA database. The pilot project lasted three months, and early indications are that those affiliates who took part found it beneficial. A full report is expected form ILA in mid April 2008. STUC HELEN DOWIE AWARD FOR LIFELONG LEARNING The STUC Helen Dowie Award for Lifelong Learning was established by the General Council in 2006, to recognise the contribution to lifelong learning of trade union activists. The nomination process for the award asks unions to identify a lay activist, who has excelled in the promotion of the workplace learning agenda within their organisation, workplace or community. As part the re-branding of the three union rep awards as the STUC Union Rep Awards, a new Adjudication Panel for the STUC Helen Dowie Award for Lifelong Learning was established. The Panel considers the nominations received from affiliates and will recommend to the General Council, for its approval, the recipient of each Award. The STUC Helen Dowie Award for Lifelong Learning Adjudication Panel consists of five people: three General Council members, the STUC Deputy General Secretary and the TUC Education Officer for Scotland. The SALLT continues to provide administration and recipient support. The 2006 and 2007 awards were sponsored by the Scottish Executive and learndirect scotland. The recipient of the 2007 award was Rachael Bonner, a PCS Regional Learning Officer employed at the HMRC in Cumbernauld. At the time of reporting, consideration is being given to the applications submitted for the 2008 award. It is also a key objective of the General Council to plan a strategy to ensure the effective funding of all the STUC Union Rep Awards each year. The General Council would like to acknowledge the continued support for the award given by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown MP. SCOTTISH UNION LEARNING CONFERENCE The 7th Annual STUC Learning Conference was held at Hampden Park, Glasgow on 15 November 2007. The theme of the Conference was “Reaching Out: Union Learning” and the main sponsor of the event was ILA SCOTTISH TRADES UNION CONGRESS
Scotland. The conference was opened by Phil McGarry, STUC President, and 160 delegates attended the one-day event. The Conference was addressed by Fiona Hyslop MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Skills & Lifelong Learning, who announced continued SULF funding of £4.2m over the next three years. The keynote speaker was Grahame Smith, STUC General Secretary, who focussed on the Scottish Government’s Skills Strategy. The Conference was also addressed by Rachael Bonner, PCS Regional Learning Officer and the 2007 STUC Helen Dowie Award for Lifelong Learning recipient. The Conference provided participants with practical information and skills through workshops and presentations, and also allowed ULRs from across the country to come together and discuss the future shape of union learning across Scotland, both nationally and regionally. The Conference structure was workshop based rather than keynote speakers, a format very well received by participants. Delegates participated in four workshops: “ULRs Connect: Migrant Workers and the Learning Agenda in the Workplace”; “Everyday Skills: ESOL in the Workplace”; “Funding: ULRs Engage with ILA Scotland”; and “Everyday Skills: BBC RaW”. Exhibitors supplemented the Conference and came from Forth Valley College, ILA Scotland, Open University, Financial Services Authority, TUC Education, Stow College, South Lanarkshire College, Langside College, SSASCOT, Careers Scotland, Cumbernauld College, and John Wheatley College. The provisional date for the 8th Annual Conference is 13 November 2008. SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT TRADE UNION WEEK ULRs from across Scotland travelled to the Scottish Parliament to take part in lifelong learning events on Deaf Awareness, Dyslexia and Lifelong Learning as part of Trade Union Week. MSPs Cathie Craigie, Marlyn Glenn, Peter Peacock, John Park, Sandra White, Karen Gillon and David Stewart met with FBU, TSSA and RMT Union Learning Reps from the Highlands and Islands, to discuss deaf awareness issues in Scotland. The meeting centred on the ‘Sign Here’ initiative, a deaf awareness project for union members across the Highlands and Islands. The ‘Dyslexia in the Workplace’ session launched the development of a Scottish Trade Union Strategy to support working adults with dyslexia. MSPs who attended were Elaine Smith, Peter Peacock, John Farquhar Munro, Joe Fitzpatrick, Marlyn Glen and Keith Brown. Union Learning Reps from the FBU, PCS, BFAWU and RMT engaged with MSPs on a multitude of dyslexia-related issues. The third session looked at the centrality of lifelong learning in the trade union movement. MSP Cathy Jamieson attended the session, which was facilitated by GENERAL COUNCIL REPORT 2008 TUC Education in Scotland. Members from Unite: Amicus Section gave examples of successful union learning in the workplace, and the SALLT is taking forward a series of meetings with MSPs to raise the political profile of the trade union lifelong learning agenda with all political parties. SCOTTISH UNION LEARNING WEBSITE The purpose of the website, http://www.scottishunionlearning.com, is to provide ULRs and union members with information on union learning activity, or on initiatives that might be of interest to union learners. The site also contains a facility to allow individual unions and partners to create and populate their own sections. The SALLT updates the site on a regular basis. The site is currently testing an interactive learning forum online, where users can post and respond to topics surrounding skills and lifelong learning in Scotland. Individual affiliates have also been encouraged to develop their parts of the site and future SULF 7 projects will be encouraged to use the site to share good practice. SCOTTISH UNION LEARNING NEWS To increase awareness of the General Council’s activity on skills and lifelong learning, the SALLT developed a quarterly newsletter called the “Scottish Union Learning News” in 2006. The newsletter was produced in February, May and August 2007 and in February 2008, and covers a variety of topics, including a spotlight article on specific unions, updates on provision, events, everyday skills information and much more. The newsletter is circulated with the STUC e-brief and is complemented by the bimonthly e-newsletter published by the Highlands & Islands SALLT, which is designed to keep local union members and SULF project workers up to date with local learning activities that would be of interest to their members. SECTOR SKILLS COUNCILS During the year, the SALLT has continued to work with the 25 Sector Skills Councils (SSCs). These are the industryled bodies that have taken over the role of the National Training Organisations (NTOs). The General Council has been represented on the Sector Skills Project Board by the Skills & Lifelong Learning Manager. As a result of national changes, this Board will have its final meeting in March 2008 .The new UK Commission for Employment and Skills has now been established and, in December 2007, the General Council was appointed as a Commissioner. The General Council has continued to liaise closely with the TUC and unionlearn over the development of SSCs. The General Council is keen to ensure that the SSCs take account of the role of unions and union-led learning in their work, particularly the development of Sector Skills 29
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Page 39 and 40: Bargaining for Equal Pay The Bargai
Page 41 and 42: Chapter Six Government and Parliame
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Page 69 and 70: Appendix STUC Affiliations 2007/200
Page 71 and 72: Appendix Obituary Graham Arbuckle R
Page 73: 1989 Ronnie Webster (Aberdeen Trade

General Council Meetings - The STUC

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