Chapter 12 - At Work in the Regions

Chapter 12

at work in the regions

12.1 Introduction

This chapter reports on action and organisation in the regions, including the TUC Regional Education Service, TUC Regional Councils, Trades Union Councils and Unemployed Workers Centres.

12.2 The TUC Education Service

The TUC's drive to rebuild membership and organisation crucially depends on recruiting more workplace representatives, and then equipping them with the skills and confidence they need to win a better deal for working people. Expanding our training programme for union representatives - and ensuring that training is designed and delivered to meet the demands of the modern world of work - is a top priority for the TUC Regional Education Service.

Going for growth

The TUC runs a fully accredited national education programme which offers training to more than one in ten of Britain's 220,000 union workplace representatives each year. Course enrolments have increased by 3,243 over the 1997 Congress year figures, despite the difficulties faced by many trade union representatives in obtaining paid release for training. The figures for 1998 show a continuing and steady demand for the range of core courses along with a surge of enrolments in the area of Certificate evening classes and own time study programmes. This builds on the trends identified in the previous Congress year and points in particular to the importance of the 'progression routes' the TUC has put in place. The accreditation of TUC courses has proved to be particularly successful, with continuing high rates of take up of credits and achievement.

Short courses remain an important feature of the programme in supporting national TUC priorities and the work of affiliates, and there has been a significant increase in the numbers of students attending short courses. Courses have been organised on a range of issues including the Working Time Directive, employment law (in particular on the provisions of the Employment Relations Bill), public interest disclosure, data protection, diseases at work, violence at work, risk assessment, manual handling, harassment at work, assertiveness and personal effectiveness. An emerging area of work is that of company-specific courses for union representatives and joint courses for union representatives and managers, funded by employers. The TUC Education Service will be working to give a higher profile to this area of provision and to integrate it into the partnership agenda.

Seminars for full-time officers and senior union representatives have also been organised on current issues and TUC priorities, in particular on the provisions of the Employment Relations Bill and on Working Time. Some resources are also devoted to arranging trade union studies for young people and school students, and new materials have been developed to support this, including A Better Way to Work anda manual for tutors. The training course for trades union volunteers interested in this work is accredited and the TUC Education Service periodically publicises a national programme in conjunction with the TUC Youth Officer under the New Unionism banner.

The TUC Education Service is based on partnerships and during a time of rapid change and limited resources the long standing link with Colleges of Further Education and the WEA have made it possible to maintain and extend the resource base for trade union education. Trade Union Studies Units are now at the heart of wider college structures with considerable mutual benefits and the TUC continues to enjoy positive professional relationships with College managers and tutors. The TUC wishes to record its appreciation of the significant contribution made by colleges, the WEA, their staff and those trade unionists who service on TUC Education Advisory Committees in maintaining and developing the TUC Education Service.

The TUC also wishes to record its appreciation to the National Open College Network (NOCN) for the work undertaken in partnership to ensure that the accreditation of the Programme continues to meet quality assurance demands without sacrificing sensitivity and flexibility.

The TUC continues to play an active role as a partner in the Employment National Training Organisation (Employment NTO, formerly EOSC) and is involved in the setting of occupational standards across the employment field.

Accreditation

The TUC Education Service has worked in partnership with the National Open College Network (NOCN) for almost three years, and all TUC courses offer credits which validate achievement in learning. A fundamental principle, established in the initial stages of the project, was that the decision to register for assessment and credits rests solely with the learner, and the TUC Education Service has been punctilious in ensuring that this is the case. Union representatives, however, continue to take advantage of the opportunity to gain credits, and take up and achievement levels remain significantly higher than initial expectations. Trade union learners have been awarded more than 160,000 credits since accreditation was introduced, and it is estimated that each year, over 60,000 credits will be awarded through the TUC Education Service Programme. Students continue to achieve at levels 2 and 3, an indication of the complex skills and knowledge in this area of study.

In 1998, the TUC Education Service commissioned City University's Department of Continuing and Adult Education to undertake some research on the impact of accreditation with the following objectives:

· to identify whether the operation of assessment for credit is perceived as or operates as a barrier to participation by certain groups

· to identify the impact of accreditation on the delivery of the curriculum and the working culture of the group

· to identify what practises adopted by tutors in the implementation of credit based learning and its assessment have particular significance for the studentexperience (ie identifying good practise)

· to identify union representatives' expectations of and attitudes towards the use of credits

The research was completed and a shorter version has been published by NIACE (ISBN 1 86201 070 6) as Learning that Works - Accrediting the TUC Programme by Elaine Capizzi. Some of the key findings of the research are as follows:

· accreditation is very positively valued by representatives (74 per cent viewed the idea positively, 85 per cent subsequently decided to seek accreditation)

· exceptionally high rates of participation have been achieved particularly in relation to other NOCN programmes and other types of qualifications

· accreditation and the processes attendant on it have enhanced the quality of several critical elements of the course experience through promoting greater clarity of purpose and focus for course activities and a more conscientious approach to work within the programme

· accreditation has been achieved without a distortion of the purposes and ethos of the programme - representatives' primary purpose and most valued outcomes still centre upon the achievement of the knowledge and skills central to their role as representatives.

· tutors and representatives reported the maintenance - if not enhancement- of collective learning practices, flexibility in responding to diverse group and individual needs and workplace situations

· the majority of representatives regard the extra work they expend on their files as useful or helpful

· as with the TUC Education Programme itself, accreditation is valued relatively consistently amongst people with radically different educational qualifications

· the TUC Programme in its methods and outcomes makes a major contribution to widening participation:

For over one fifth of those participating ....the credits they achieve will

be their first 'certification' within the system of recognised national

qualifications.

· some barriers to participation still pertain. For a significant minority (almost ten per cent) difficulty in getting release remains a significant barrier and for an indeterminate number, formal release still entails 'making up work missed' because of lack of cover.

Progression

For many thousands of working people, TUC education is a passport to self confidence and new learning opportunities. According to TUC commissioned research, nearly four in ten of TUC education participants left full-time education with no qualifications and eight in ten of them now felt confident to go on to further education and training.

The skills of trade union representatives are now recognised in a national system of credits which can be used in a range of ways to provide access to further learning.

It is now generally recognised that around 16 OCN Credits at levels 2 and (particularly) 3 are equivalent to 2 or 3 `A' levels and therefore qualify for university admission ina related area of study. The TUC works with a range of universities, both formally and informally, to ensure that union representatives' learning can be taken account of in admission to appropriate degree courses and to enable integration of early parts of the degree into the Certificate course. This area is complex and developing rapidly, and the TUC Education Service now occupies a secure position in mainstream education and training and the national credit framework from which it can build.

The TUC offers three longer programmes of study, the Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health, the Certificate in Information Technology and the Certificate in Trade Union and Labour Studies. All are accredited and kite marked as access courses. The Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has recognised the Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health as satisfying the academic requirements for entry to the Technician Safety Practitioner (TechSP) grade of IOSH membership, on a par with the NEBOSH Certificate. This is an important pathway for safety representatives and another validation of the quality of the training they receive.

Work is in progress to revise and rewrite the Certificate in Trade Union and Labour Studies to ensure that it maintains relevance and quality.

The TUC has developed a number of TUC Awards, including four which are now listed in Schedule 2(a) of the Further and Higher Education Act. These cover key areas of provision and during the next academic year, the Awards will be introduced pending approval from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).

Health and Safety Course Development.

The TUC provides training for around 6,000 safety representatives each year, and health and safety training remains central to the work of the Education Service. The health and safety training programme is being completely revised with the support of the Health and Safety Executive's Training Initiative budget. The process was begun with a development workshop for health and safety tutors and the timetable established at that workshop will mean that both core courses will have been rewritten by April 2000. The TUC will be considering short course modules to run in tandem with these developments and in particular, a revised COSHH programme is in development in support of the union backed HSE COSHH Essentials campaign.

The TUC Education Service sought and received funding from Directorate General X of the European Commission to develop what is now the most comprehensive and accessible health and safety website in the UK. It is designed to support the work of TUC tutors but is freely available to safety representatives on the main TUC website (http://www.tuc.org.uk). It contains up to date news, information and contacts, access to useful sites such as the HSE and the EU Health and Safety Agency, the full updated version of Hazards at Work online and much more. Developments on the site will continue.

The TUC Education Service is commissioning an impact study, to assess what happens at the workplace as a result of health and safety training. This will take place during 1999 -2000.

Further Course development.

TUC Education materials and courses are regularly reviewed to ensure they arerelevant to the needs of union representatives in the modern world of work. Recruitment and organising, partnership, new employment rights and equal opportunities are among key themes and priorities for course development and tutor training.

A new Stage 1 Union Representatives course has been developed which will be launched in 1999. The materials are designed to fit into a ringbinder which will form the core of a student file for assessment purposes and for reference in the workplace. The materials will replace the familiar 'traffic light' books and 'skillnotes' have been drafted and separately identified so that tutors can use them more widely. Learning outcomes and assessment criteria have been integrated into the course. A skills analysis of union representatives who have secured successful partnership agreements is planned as a basis to audit existing provision and ensure that relevant skills are covered.

A new Employment Law Tutors' Manual is in production to assist tutors in teaching courses and modules on the Employment Relations Act. The manual will contain education and resource materials and materials are designed to be updated to take account of case law and best practise as they develop. It will include options for inclusion on the ten day programme, modules on 'family friendly' aspects of the legislation and a strong organising focus.

Tutor Development

The TUC held the second annual tutor conference, attended by over 80 trade union education professionals, on new developments in TUC Education, where papers on health and safety, TUC Learning Services, accreditation and funding mechanisms and partnership were presented and discussed.

Work is in progress to map the TUC tutor training units into a recognised teaching qualification.

The TUC Education Service organised and ran a range of tutor training courses designed to equip tutors to teach on the core programme using participative learning methods. In addition, a number of regional briefings took place on areas of TUC policy and a number of national briefings were held on employment law and New Unionism.

Prior Learning

At present, TUC accreditation can only be achieved through attendance on courses. This means that those union representatives who have successfully completed TUC courses in the past, and who have received a TUC certificate of attendance only, are unable to receive formal acknowledgement, through credits, of the learning achieved. This has lead to some demand for accreditation of prior learning and the TUC Education Service is examining what can be done to satisfy this demand. A New Opportunity for Women (NOW) project carried out by TUC Education in the South West has developed an innovative fast track programme based on the Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) for women representatives.

The Union Learning Representative

The TUC Education Service has a significant role in delivering the 'learning services'

agenda, in particular the training, supporting and standards setting for the union learning representative. Training programmes in use include tutor manuals on A Trade Union Approach to Lifelong Learning and Front Line Advice and Guidance on Learning. Work in progress includes a negotiator's guide to employee development schemes and materials on the learning representatives' role in learning support in a University for Industry (UfI) context. The TUC has also appointed project advisors to develop a set of standards defining the role of the learning representative, to provide coherence against which future training and development can be mapped.

New Unionism

The New Unionism agenda is central to trade union education , and the organising themes have been integrated into the core programme. Courses have been organised throughout the UK in support of the work of individual unions or campaigns, and a short 'taster' course has been developed to give union representatives a sample of the new organising ideas and techniques contained within the TUC Manual, Winning the Organised Workplace.

European Partnerships

The TUC Education Service continues to be involved in transnational work that reflects TUC priorities. It provides Trade Union Studies tutors for courses and projects organised through the European Trade Union College (ETUCO/AFETT) and for a range of projects in Central and Eastern Europe.

In partnership with UNISON and Preston College, the TUC Education Service is participating in an Objective 3 project, 'Target Progress' on the training of workplace representatives.

The TUC Education Service in the Midlands is managing a national project , now in its second year, under the Leonardo programme on analysing training needs and designing curricula for European Works Council members. Partners include CISL (Italy), DGB (Germany), ETUCO, FNV (Holland), STUC and the University of Northumbria.

International Work

Internationalismremainsa key theme of much of the work of the TUC Education Service. Trades Union Studies tutors continue to contribute to the work of the TUC European Union and International Unit and to that of the Commonwealth TUC through projects in Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

NB - next five pages of statistics to follow style of 183 - 185 of 1998 Report

TUC Education Service statistics, 1998

Table 1: Union workplace representatives: Courses 1998

Region	Union officials		Safety representatives		Specialist courses	Short courses	Totals
	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 1	Stage 2
South & East	51	12	60	34	21	304	482
South West	15	2	36	10	11	102	176
West Midlands	37	18	35	19	25	84	218
East Midlands	16	5	18	6	14	35	94
Yorks & Humberside	24	8	27	12	10	135	216
North West	55	28	74	53	63	595	868
Northern	15	5	18	10	6	84	138
Wales	17	6	21	13	8	40	105
Scotland	20	6	30	9	12	74	151
Totals	250	90	319	166	170	1453	2448

Table 2: Union workplace representatives: Students 1998

Region	Union officials		Safety representatives		Specialist courses	Short courses	Totals
	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 1	Stage 2
South & East	626	118	811	375	215	3782	5927
South West	145	19	436	98	98	1213	2009
West Midlands	477	204	479	169	269	923	2521
East Midlands	250	63	248	43	88	393	1085
Yorks & Humberside	381	88	438	133	115	1678	2833
North West	551	253	827	476	665	6958	9730
Northern	210	45	253	95	56	1203	1862
Wales	176	64	251	135	73	393	1092
Scotland	254	56	401	120	118	1086	2035
Totals	3070	910	4144	1644	1697	17629	29094
Women	24.5 per cent	19.7 per cent	22.8 per cent	21.3 per cent	30.6 per cent	39.4 per cent	33.3 per cent

Table 3: Short course students by Generic Course Title 1998

Generic Title Students

Industrial Relations/Collective Bargaining 262

Health and Safety 544

Induction 108

Equality 169

Skills 3445

Other 13101*

TOTAL 17629

* Other courses include those organised in response to union requests.

Table 4: TUC Day Release and Short Courses Provision 1989 - 1998

Year	Union Officials Stage 1 & 2		Health & Safety Stage 1 & 2		Follow-on / Specialist		Short Courses		Evening Classes		Totals
	Courses	Students	Courses	Students	Courses	Students	Courses	Students	Courses	Students	Courses	Students
1989-90	637	7296	584	7065	92	885	1552	19594			2865	34840
1990-91	613	6794	581	6741	83	809	1340	15529			2617	29873
1991-92	546	6454	543	6635	95	1014	1329	16402			2513	30505
1992	512	6045	521	6457	101	1035	1198	15549			2332	29086
1993	394	4728	523	6775	110	1268	1380	18209			2407	30980
1994	401	4520	498	5988	98	1013	1088	14036	80	1054	2165	26611
1995	395	4503	472	5733	118	1335	900	10496	84	967	1969	23034
1996	373	4201	496	5712	165	1812	955	8570	138	2646	2127	22941
1997	330	3703	456	5740	182	1916	1023	11377	263	3115	2254	25851
1998	340	3980	485	5788	170	1697	1121	13442	332	4187	2448	29094
Note: The statistical information from 1992 onwards relates to the calendar year, whereas in previous years it was reported on a fiscal year basis.
Evening Classes were provided prior to 1994 but details were not recorded.

Table 5: Percentage Take-up of Places on TUC 10-day and short courses 1998

(Unions with 0.5 per cent and upwards of total affiliated membership)

Total Affiliated Membership 6,754,245

Total Number of Students Attending TUC Day-Release Courses 11,465

Total Number of Students Attending TUC Short Courses 17,629

Union % of TUC membership % take-up of TUC course places

10-day courses short courses

UNISON19.25 27.49 29.54

T&G13.05 14.83 6.44

AEEU10.6612.246.99

GMB10.517.7814.54

MSF6.363.573.11

USDAW4.343.498.33

CWU4.050.87 0.99

PCS 3.94 6.06 6.62

GPMU3.034.15 2.30

NUT2.840.110.53

NASUWT2.560.000.13

UCATT1.681.630.66

BIFU 1.67 0.33 2.10

ATL 1.66 0.00