"One jewel in our crown is our learning agenda."

Dave Prentis, General Secretary

This section of the course aims to give you the chance to:

• consider what constitutes the UNISON learning officer
• look at ways of promoting the offer to employers and employees
• understand how learning can be used to organise
• present the benefits of learning to the Branch

Workbook: activity 5 & 6

You will each be giving a 5 minute oral presentation on the question of "How can the learning offer be used to organise?" during this week's Community Call.

Spend a good amount of time exploring the materials below, completing your workbook tasks and doing your own research as preparation for your presentation. Also, be prepared to answer a few questions from other members of the group (who will be acting as your 'Branch Committee') after your presentation.

The UNISON Learning Offer

The videos below from our colleagues at UNISON West Midlands are all about people's experience of learning, education and training through UNISON

Now, explore the lifelong learning and activist training sections of the UNISON website.

In particular, it might be useful for you to look at and download the full list of Learning & Organising Workshops that are available for delivery directly to your Branch. It will help you with task 5 of your workbook.

WULF Projects

In addition to the fantastic learning offer we make to UNISON members across the UK, here in Wales we have Wales Union Learning Fund (WULF) projects dedicated to supporting our ULRs. Find out more in the next section

UNISON and the Open University

The Open University and our union have had a long standing partnership aimed at getting more and more "non-traditional" adult learners into higher education. http://www.open.ac.uk/choose/unison/

In Wales, we've developed particularly close partnership with the OU and over the years many UNISON members have received funding to attend OU short courses and access courses. This includes a range of pre-prepared "Flexilearn" sessions that ULRs can deliver directly in the workplace You can find out more about the UNISON/OU partnership by clicking here.

On the next page you will find out even more about how UNISON in Wales supports Union Learning Reps.