HC Deb 08 September 2003 vol 410 cc150-1W
Linda Perham

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the Union Learning Fund. [127789]

Mr. Ivan Lewis

Unions have a key role in promoting learning and skills in the workplace, and to help them achieve this, the Department has provided financial support through the Union Learning Fund since 1998. The Union Learning Fund is now in its sixth year and has supported over 400 projects from over 50 different unions, working in almost 3,000 workplaces. Many Union Learning Fund projects are specifically aimed at widening participation in learning: basic skills, social inclusion and equal opportunities and improving access to learning. Evaluation up to 2002, together with performance management data for July 2003, has shown that over 36,000 people have completed learning courses, over 6,500 Union Learning Representatives have been trained and around 180 new learning centres have been opened. Unions have been very successful in engaging non-traditional learners including older males and shift workers.

One of the Union Learning Fund's greatest strengths is the success of Union Learning Representatives, a new type of lay union representative whose main function is to advise union members about their training and development needs. Union Learning Representatives are ideally placed to help and encourage workers to improve their skills, particularly the lowest skilled and those with literacy and numeracy problems. They share a level of trust with union members who would be embarrassed about admitting their learning needs to their employer.

Following a consultation exercise in 2001, we introduced legislation to give Union Learning Representatives the same rights to paid time off for training and for carrying out their duties as those enjoyed by shop stewards and other union representatives at workplaces where a union is recognised for collective bargaining purposes. The legislation on Union Learning Representatives came into effect on 27 April along with the revised ACAS Code of Practice.

Additional funding for Union Learning for the next two financial years, announced in the last budget, will help us continue to build on the positive contribution made by Union Learning Representatives.