Lifelong Learning & Development Group minutes

- 5 Jun 06

Present:

• Rose Gander, David Henley, Valerie Passmore, Anne Hydes

Apologies:

• Lesley Valentine, Doreen Williams, Jenny Hildreth.
• 
  Denise Cooper has retired on ill-health grounds.

Feedback

Rose passed around a number of leaflets and documents that had been sent to her.

• New Branch guide to Life-Long Learning - All ULRs should have a copy of this booklet
• New list of Openings courses (Open University) - these courses are aimed more towards people who do not have Life Skills requirements
• WEA courses - services for learners
• Two booklets from Niace
  • Adult education courses
  • Catching confidence
• Latest copy of the Unison magazine In Focus - all ULRs should get this. Could all ULRs let Rose know whether they get a copy of In Focus
• Leaflet about the new Global Centre opening in Exeter.

Doreen Williams will be attending the Information & Guidance course on 4 & 5 July.

The date of the Dyslexia course has been changed to 30 November / 1 December.

Skills for life project with Health and Social Care

• Jackie Roberts is our contact on this and will have an update soon.

Time off for ULR duties

Rose will inform Staff Side of the difficulty in getting time off for ULR work.

The County is collecting information regarding Trades Union activities.
There was a feeling that the figures being collected may not be a true reflection of the work being done as some ULRs are doing this work in their own time.

Possible courses required

It was suggested that there is a failing in the course provision from either Unison or the WEA.

The sort of courses that were suggested include

• CV writing
• Transferable skills
• Retraining / redirecting for redundancy

There is a Women's Event - at 7.30pm on 29 Jun 06 at Okehampton Rugby Club.

This is 'Just Desserts' and will be an opportunity for women members to find out more about the benefits of being a member, encourage people to get involved and to have a nice time! Contact for this is Ann Hydes Women's Offficer.

ULR contacts

It was agreed that we should contact the other ULRs within DCC to find out how they are doing.

• Val - Julia Boulton
• Rose - Fran Rees, Lesley Valentine
• Ann - Patricia Moore
• David - Sheila Gurr

Adult and Community Services Modernisation

There were some concerns raised about how this would affect the Learning and Development team; in particular LifeLong Learning and Skills for Life training.

It was felt that the modernisation could move many of the staff aimed at by UNISON to other employers. These staff could be those most in need of Skills for Life training.

There was also the question of whether the Learning Partnership agreement will apply to employers who take on DCC staff. Rose to check this out with staff side rep.

Branch Executive Meeting Dates

ULRs were encouraged to attend the Branch Executive meetings if possible.
Dates were given as:

• 27 Jun 06 - 3.45 to tie in with Special General Meeting at 6.00pm.
• 24 Jul 06 - communication in the branch
• 22 Aug 06
• 6 Oct 06
• 13 Sep 06
• 6 Nov 06
• 13 Dec 06

The Learning & Development meeting for August has been re-scheduled to 14 Aug 06, 10am -12 noon. We are aiming to hold this meeting in Barnstaple.

CD / Film

Jackie has identified someone to do this. We would have to apply to the Regional Pool for money to fund this.

Rose will contact Paul Giblin to see if there is anyone within DCC with the facilities to make a video / DVD.

Courses

There appears to be difficulty in getting taster sessions for courses so that people can see if they want to do them.

It was suggested that we invite Kay McKenzie (Regional Education Officer) to a future Learning and Development meeting to discuss this.

Rose will be attending the final session of the Women's Lives course to speak to the attendees.

Rose and Ann will be attending an event for newly qualified social workers to have a UNISON stall and to speak to the attendees.

New ULR Website

There is a new website where ULRs can make contact with other ULRs:

• www.unionlearn.org.uk/southwest (opens in a new window)

The Rail Union Learning Project has also asked if we can mention some union learning vacancies they are looking to recruit for at present, details can be found at www.rul.org.uk (opens in a new window) or along with other union and TUC vacancies at www.tuc.org.uk/the_tuc/index.cfm?mins=206 (opens in a new window).

Tolpuddle festival

This will take place on 14-16 July this year. It is a really good day out for all members.

David Henley
ULR.