Union learning has boosted workforce skills and workplace relations, say employers
27/4/2010
More than half of employers (55 per cent) say that their employees have improved their qualifications, thanks to union-led projects.
As a result, nine out of ten say they will continue to be involved in union learning activities in the workplace. Two-thirds said there had been a benefit to the organisation and eight in ten said there had been a benefit to individuals.
The findings, from a survey conducted by Leeds University's Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change, for unionlearn, the TUC's learning and skills organisation, show hard evidence of the positive effect that union-led learning has had on the workforce over the past 12 years ago. The survey is the largest ever of employer attitudes to union learning activity.
The 415 employers, which employed around 1 million employees, were evenly split between the public and private sector and covered a wide range of businesses and organisations.
- Just over two-thirds of employers (68 per cent) reported that union-led projects had led to employees with little history of learning taking up courses;
- 71 per cent said it has increased the demand for learning among those with poor basic skills and
- Learning or training increased for those with high-level skills by 28 per cent.
More than half (54 per cent) of organisations which liaised with unions on learning and training had set up a workplace learning centre. These can be found in bus depots and bakeries, community learning centres, a Sikh temple, fire stations, hospitals, schools, factories, shops, railway stations, airports, town halls and offices.
Unionlearn's strength has been to use union learning reps to act as advocates, encouraging and advising their colleagues on the advantages of improving their skills. It has trained more than 23,000 ULRs, delivered 30,000 Skills for Life courses and reaches 250,000 learners per year.
The Leeds University report found that Union Learning Fund projects are:
- Inclusive: more than nine out of ten projects opened learning opportunities to non-union members. A third of projects targeted a specific ethnic or minority group.
- Give added value: without ULF projects, learning would not have taken place in many workplaces or the quality of learning would not have been as good.
Union Learning Fund projects have had a positive knock-on effect on employer-employee relations, on staff morale and health and safety in the workplace. Almost a third of employers said that organisational performance had increased and 42 per cent said that levels of trust between management and unions had improved.
Where learning agreements were signed by employers (in 53 per cent of workplaces), the learning experience and the benefits to the organisation have been the greatest.
Union Learning Fund projects have encouraged four out of ten employers to make a financial contribution to union learning activities (the average investment was £23,000); however many more provided contributions in kind, for example equipment, office space and time off for reps and employees.
The report shows that unions have a role to play with employers "to help them navigate economic uncertainty and prepare for better times". Joint working with unions increased at almost a third (30 per cent) of workplaces as a response to the recession.
The biggest hurdle for union learning projects has been the securing time off for staff to take part in learning and reps to carry out their functions. There is also the issue of funding. While four in ten employers state that learning activities would continue without external funding, more than a quarter (28 per cent) disagreed. A third of employers still do not provide training for their workers.
Tom Wilson, director of unionlearn said: "The Leeds University survey shows why employers like union learning. It helps them and helps their employees. As skills become ever more important, promoting learning is increasingly becoming a core activity for unions. Unions are working at a local level with employers to identify and meet skills gaps and challenging poor employers to match the best."
