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We are pleased to announce that Community Union in Scotland has been successful
in their application for further Development Funding for 2012-2013.

The project commenced on 1st April 2012, and over the coming year, we will build upon existing project objectives and will develop further objectives that will link the union learning strategy with the wider workplace strategy of the union.

The following objectives will be developed and built upon in the coming project year:

• Integrating Union learning
• Employer Engagement and Skills utilisation
• Supporting Migrant workers in the workplace
• Supporting visually impaired workers with assistive technology in the workplace
• Building learning in the community

Community members across Scotland have benefited enormously from the various workplace learning opportunities we have facilitated through previous Development and Learning funding, and we will continue to reach more Community members and promote the union’s learning agenda in and out-with the workplace in the communities where our members and their families live.

The union-owned Jimmy Brandon Learning Centre in the Scottish Regional office in Motherwell continues to play a pivotal role in providing learning opportunities for our members and is a hub of learning for other unions and the wider community. The project will continue to build partnerships to strengthen the role of the learning centre and the role of Community Union.

Download an Information sheet outlining the project objectives more fully. 

The Jimmy Brandon Learning Centre, based within Community Union’s Region 1 Office recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary with a refurbishment and an official re-opening ceremony.

 The centre was officially re-opened by General Secretary of Community Union, Michael Leahy and the STUC General Secretary Grahame Smith along with Margaret Brandon, wife of the late Jimmy Brandon.

Invited guests included local MP Frank Roy, local MSP John Pentland, North Lanarkshire Council Leader Jim McCabe and representatives from the STUC - alongside the entire Community Union Board and staff from the Region 1 office.

 The event was an opportunity to not only celebrate the 10 year anniversary and refurbishment of the learning centre, but also an opportunity to recognise the achievements of Community Union and Communitas in delivering quality learning opportunities to Community members in Region1.

New Union Learning Reps have been recruited by their branches to support their colleagues at four workplaces in Region 3.

Colleagues at Stelrad in Mexborough, Polypipe in Doncaster, Tata Steel in Leeds and Tube City in Scunthorpe will be able to discuss their learning and training issues with seven new ULR’s who completed the first part of their training at the Bramley regional office on Friday 21^st October. The seven reps were identified and recruited by the regional Communitas ULF project team and Community campaign teams working closely with branch officials. 

The ULR school was delivered, in Bramley, by Debbie Potts, Manchester College TU ed tutor and long time “Community” member.

Back Row L to R, Phil Sullivan (Campaign Manager), Andy McGarrigle (Campaign Manager), Stephen Causebrook (ULR), Mark James (ULR), Barrie Corker (ULR), Meil Thrush (ULR)
 Front Row L to R, David Vardy (ULR), Debbie Potts (Tutor), Stephen Evans (ULR), Dan Shaw (ULR)

Lisa Chambers, head of HR, on behalf of Stelrad, said;

 “I am fully supportive of this agreement and looking forward to working with the ULR’s to encourage everyone at Stelrad to look for opportunities to develop themselves and progress at work and in their personal lives”.

On behalf of Community Trade Union, branch secretary Peter Hollies said;

“Stelrad and the trade union already have an open, collaborative and respectful relationship. This agreement will reinforce that relationship. On behalf of the members and potential members, I look forward to being part of the support team that helps them to learn new skills and achieve new qualifications. It is vital, in these uncertain times, that everyone is encouraged and supported to keep their skills up to date”.

Back Row L to R, Allan Sharp, David Vardy (ULR),Andy McGarrigle (Campaign Manager), Barrie Corker (ULR),Stephen Evans (ULR),

                 Front row L to R, Pat Donnelly, Craig Chambers (Stelrad Production Manager), Lisa Chambers (Stelrad HR Manager), Peter Hollies (Community Branch Sec.)

 Steven Ulyatt said, on behalf of Communitas;

On Thursday  5^th  May 2011 we had great pleasure in attending the awards ceremony at the Victoria Carpets plant to see 21 Community members being presented with their certificates for successfully passing their NVQ level 2 in Performing Manufacturing Operations and also some of the workforce going on to achieve more qualifications in numeracy and literacy.

It is wonderful to see a highly skilled workforce achieving qualifications which they may have otherwise not have got without the help of the Union and Communitas.

Let’s hope this is just the start of the learning agenda at the company which is affectionately known as the “Vic”

 All of this has been achieved when Community the Union for Life and Victoria Carpets signed an historic learning agreement so all the employees at the plant could access training which is supported through Communitas and specialised training providers.

Terry Pye, Community’s National Operations Officer and Neil Glover, Operations Director of Victoria Carpets UK presented the City & Guilds certificates.

  Terry Pye summed up the training by saying:

‘This is a great personal achievement for everyone involved. It shows what can be done as a result of everyone working together. We now plan to build on this initial success by encouraging more employees to takeup the opportunities provided’

Pictured right are the Branch Officers and Union Learning Reps along with Roy Rickhuss, National Officer Community and  Robert Maine, Tata Colorsteel Works Manager, at the recent opening of the Tata Colorsteels workplace Learning Centre at the Crosskeys site on 4th March 2011.

 This is now the fourth centre that has been equipped and set up as part of the union learning project.

On Thursday 24^th February 2011 Tyco Fire Products Manufacturing Stockport Re-Launched the Learning Resource Centre on site at Stockport.

The Learning Resource Centre is a partnership between Tyco, Community Union/Communitas and St Antony’s Centre who will be our training provider. It is a training facility open for any employee who wishes to improve their IT, Literacy and Numeracy skills and also gain nationally recognised qualifications.

During the Open Day St Antony’s and Tyco Learning Representatives gave presentations during the day and in the evening to the nightshift workforce on the courses that are currently on offer.

There was great interest in particular to the ITQ qualification where employees can gain a nationally recognised IT qualification which covers Software packages such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. In fact 43 employees registered on the day for this qualification with a further 16 employees registering an interest for the Literacy course.