Home > News > April 2006 > 28-Apr-2006

Union initiative provides learning for retail staff

Retail union Usdaw is offering shop staff around Scarborough the chance to join a union learning drive offering discount courses designed to boost basic skills.

The Scarborough Adult Initiative for Learning (SAIL) is a joint initiative by Usdaw, the GMB and Unison. The unions are aiming to make workplace education an every day part of their members working lives.

SAIL has been running since September 2005 with a base at the Falsgrave Centre Community Centre as well as delivering other courses from more local centres.

The project has appointed Hayley Pickles as their Mobile Union Learning Representative for the retail sector, and she has already encouraged 100 of her colleagues to take up courses.

"Many of the people who've signed up left school at 16 and haven't stepped back into a classroom since then so we want to make learning fun and also develop self-confidence," Hayley said.

"We've had a very positive response so far and all the evidence shows that an educated workforce has higher levels of motivation and absenteeism decreases.

"We've just had our 100th student and one of them said to me if you've stopped learning then you've stop living which is very true and makes the job worthwhile. The IT courses have proved very popular and we've had a huge take up of Skills For Life courses designed to boost basic skills in maths and English.

"But with the holiday season only a few weeks away we're offering courses in basic Italian and Spanish so our members can communicate with local people when they're abroad."

The three founding unions are now offering help to learning reps from the Fire Brigade Union, the Communication Workers Union and the Transport and General Workers Union to make sure virtually every trade union member in Scarborough can access a wide variety of courses.

"We've all been working closely with the teams from local learning providers who have all proved very adept at providing a range of courses for all interests," says Hayley. "They are brilliant at providing courses with flexible hours that really suit the shift patterns of busy shop workers so we think we'll get a really good take up from Usdaw members.

"We can offer internationally recognised courses like the European Computer Driving Licence for as little as £40 which is a considerable saving to Usdaw members who are often on low incomes."

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