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THE
LEARNBUS PROVES A ONE-WAY TICKET TO SUCCESS
THERE'S no set
route and you don’t need a ticket. But once you’ve been aboard
there’s no limit to where you can go! Well almost no limit.
The Learnbus is the latest venture from the GMB and unionlearn, the
TUC’s learning and skills organisation that works with unions and
employers to offer workplace training. It is being used as a
mobile learning centre, travelling between workplaces that do not
have learning facilities. As it is a double decker, it can offer far
more services than single-decker buses that have been used for the
same purpose.
The top deck features an IT suite. Similar facilities are also
available downstairs for disabled visitors. The lower deck is laid
out as an advice and information centre so visitors can learn what
learning opportunities are available.
Unionlearn project worker Marie Qazzaz first devised the idea of a
Learnbus while working with Stagecoach staff at two of its sites
that did not have learning centres.
Unionlearn’s John Halligan, GMB education officer Alfie Jones and
GMB Regional Secretary Paul McCarthy put together a successful bid
to the Union Learning Fund. The bid explained that the bus would
bring learning to workplaces through the GMB’s Learning Routes
scheme.
It is now travelling
across Merseyside, Lancashire and Greater Manchester, helping remove
barriers to learning in the workplace.
Unionlearn’s Regional Manager Dave Eva said:- "It’s a great
initiative and we are glad to be supporting it. Improving access to
learning by taking the learning to workplaces is a key part of
unionlearn’s strategy for reaching people who need to upskill but
don’t get the opportunity because of their home responsibilities or
because their employer can’t or won’t offer them training. We
think that more providers and employers should help unions develop
facilities like these to ensure we have the best trained and most
competitive workforce we can." |
Great reaction to new union learning centre at British Nuclear
Group, Warrington
STAFF at the
British Nuclear Group Sellafield’s premises in Warrington are
gaining the learning benefits of a link-up between the company,
staff union Prospect and unionlearn, the TUC’s learning and skills
organisation.
More than 65 of the staff at the site have already started courses
at the centre, which was opened by local MP Helen Jones and Barry
Snelson, the company’s Managing Director.
The centre at the Risley site is run by Prospect’s seven on-site
union learning reps (ULRs) with assistance from unionlearn project
workers. It also has links with the main BNG learning centre at
Sellafield.
Since opening with unionlearn’s help, the Risley centre has started
to offer a total of 88 courses in a variety of subjects, including
numeracy, literacy, IT skills and project management.
Unionlearn and Prospect proposed a learning centre to the company
and emphasised the benefits of encouraging workforce learning and
training – higher skilled workers, a more motivated and enthusiastic
workforce and greater levels of staff retention.
BNG Sellafield agreed and gave the go ahead.
Dave Eva, unionlearn’s Regional Manager, said:- “This is an
important development for BNG and the unions in the development of
the company learning network.
The sector they are in is vital to the North West economy and we
hope that this joint approach to learning will help keep them at the
cutting edge.”
Barry Snelson added:- “We fully support this trade union-led
initiative and are pleased to see this new learning centre which
will offer many of our employees a whole raft of new opportunities
and challenges.”
Next of kin appeal - Janet McBride
WIRRAL
Coroner's office are trying to trace the next of kin for a woman who
was found dead at her home on 1 January 2008.
Janet McBride, 64,
was found at her home address in Bertha Gardens, Birkenhead.
There are no
suspicious circumstances surrounding her death.
Any next of kin, or
anyone who has information about her next of kin, is asked to
contact the coroner's office on 0151 625 2207/5042. |
