updateWINTER 2010

Southern and Eastern Region

Clued up about learningCrime writer Val McDermid backs our skills drive

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The imagewhichwonthe Labour Photo of theYear competition run byLabourStart, the onlinelabourmovement newsservice, (reproduced onthe back page of this issue)must surely remindeveryonewho sees it

of the urgent need to eliminate child labour fromtheworldwide workplace.The photograph itself was taken in Bangladesh,

where official statistics acknowledge there arecurrently 4.9million children aged between fiveand 14 at work, with a total of 1.3million childrenestimated to beworking 43 hours ormore per week.As inmany other parts of the developingworld,

education (and the lack of it) is one of the crucialfactors behind the continuing vicious cycle createdby child poverty.Low awareness of the importance of learning

combinedwith low adult literacy levelsmeanmanyparents without basic skills themselves are in noposition to challenge children about quitting school(50 per cent of Bangladeshi children don’t completetheir primary education).In addition, the education on offer is often very

poor (not least because teacher-student ratios of1-100 are not unknown) and very expensive –while the Bangladeshi government provides freebasic primary education in terms of direct costs,it’s left to families themselves to find themoneyfor everything from pens, pencils and notebooksto transport and uniforms.When it comes to vocational training, the

picture is equally bleak: neither the governmentnormany of the non-governmental organisationshave the capacity or expertise required to delivereffective skills training in the workplace. Somuchfor child workers being “apprentices” (as they’reoften called) – they’re not learning a trade in anyway that a trade unionist would recognise (witnessthe absence of any safety equipment in thephotograph), and they shouldn’t even be at work inthe first place, they should be in full-time education.Working on behalf of ourmembers in the

Southern and Eastern regions, absorbed in thedetail of funding and providers, it’s all too easyto forget global problems like child labour continueto blight parts of the rest of the world. This year’sWorld Day Against Child Labour falls on Saturday 12June.What can you plan to do tomark the date now?

Barry Francis, Regional Manager

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and unionlearn SERTUChave got together to set up a learning centre on the 2012 sitein East London offering literacy and numeracy courses toconstruction workers and the local community.

“We’re a learndirect centre, offering literacy and numeracyup to Level 2, and offering IT courses from beginners up toLevel 2 as well,” says Learning Centre Manager Phil Spry.

Situated on the fringes of the massive infrastructure project,the centre is designed not only for workers on the site but alsofor members of local unions and the local community.

The team has been meeting a range of local unions tofill them in about what’s on offer, and is also working withthe Communities Champion at a local Tesco superstoreto help promote the centre to local people.

The centre will be formally opened in early 2010, and willremain onsite until March 2011, after which it is hoped to moveit elsewhere in the locality as part of the 2012 legacy.

For more information, please contact Phil Spry orJane Warwick. Tel: 020 3288 5520

Keystone staff welcomelearning deal

Retail union USDAW signed a learning agreement withMcDonalds suppliers Keystone Distribution and opened learningcentres at Hemel Hempstead, Haywood and Basingstoke on thesame day in November.

The Hemel Hempstead official opening attracted a lot ofinterest from staff onsite, with over 20 signing up for courseson the day.

Four ULRs are coordinating the new learning opportunitiesonsite at Hemel Hempstead: Alun Jackson from the maintenancesection; Georgie Henderson from transport; and Keith Mahoneyand Steve Reardon, who are covering different shifts in thewarehouse.

Keith, who is also a health and safety rep and a rep on thecompany forum, says he’s looking forward to helping peoplegain skills that will help them inside and outside the workplaceand sees the ULR role as an opportunity for his own personaldevelopment.

Georgie wanted to become a ULR because she’s interestedin helping others to learn and in turn increase their confidencein the same way she did by going on an IT course herself.

Keen learner Alun, who’s been with the company for 15 years,has organised sessions on watercolour painting in the past whileSteve actually joined USDAW in order to become a ULR.

Learning centre goesfor Olympics gold

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Children needto learn, not work

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Putting the‘you’ into ‘uni’Unionlearn SERTUC has signed a deal with Kingston Universitywhich will give union members 50 per cent off the cost offFoundation degrees, aimed at the workplace, and a selectionof free taster courses.

“We want to develop flexible, accessible programmesthat reflect what is needed by employers and employees,”explained Kingston University Executive Director of EnterpriseDeborah Lock.

Unionlearn SERTUC Regional Manager Barry Francis signs the Memorandumof Understanding with Kingston University Executive Director of EnterpriseDeborah Lock.

Two young Unite members at PerkinsEngines in Peterborough have taken twoof the four awards for apprentices in theSouth East of England at the first-everEngineering Employers’ Federation (EEF)Future Manufacturing Awards.

Anton Barrick (20) was named winner in the Final YearApprentice category in recognition of his unparalleledenthusiasm for engineering and his commitment tocontinuous improvement.

Christopher Worrall was runner-up in the First YearApprentice category, having completed a number ofqualifications at Peterborough Regional College and PerkinsEngines and excelling within the company’s Global EngineDevelopment department.

Unite Head of Lifelong Learning Tom Beattie congratulatedthe two young members on their achievements.

“Unite is very proud of theachievements of our two youngapprentices from Perkins Engines.They demonstrate once again thatwith proper investment andsupport from their employers,young people are capable of greatthings,” he said. “Unite iscommitted to supporting theapprenticeship system and calls onother employers to match thatcommitment by investing in high quality training such as thatdemonstrated by apprenticeships.”

EEF South East Region Director David Seall said Antonand Christopher were a credit to themselves, their employersand industry as a whole.

“Apprenticeships provide an excellent route into the worldof work for young people and play a key role in developing thetalent and skills that our manufacturing, engineering andtechnology-based companies require.”

EEF Regional Director David Seall (right) presentsChristopher Worrall with his award, flanked byHamish Mcnaughton and Mike Underhill ofaward sponsors IET; (below right) Anton Barrick

Unite duo do the awards double

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Feature interview

Val McDermid was one ofthe keynote speakers at unionlearnSERTUC’s annual conference. Sheexplains how her working-classScottish upbringing helped her becomethe successful writer she is today.

Makingcrime pay

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What was the best thing about growing up in aworking class community in Fife in the 1950s?My father was a great Burns man and I grew up with the notionof “a man’s a man for a’ that” – and that for me has been alifelong legacy of importance. I had a very strong sense thatI was as good as anybody else.

Did you enjoy reading as a child?I loved reading – I was a complete book addict. I was lucky –when I was a kid we moved to a house across the road fromthe Central Library in Kirkcaldy and that really became myhome from home.

I also spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ when I wasa kid and they only had two books in the house – a copy ofThe Bible and (for some reason that no one’s been ableadequately to explain) Agatha Christie’s Murder at the Vicarage.

I read that book again and again and again – I read it everytime I ran out of other reading material and went on to readlots of other crime fiction, and I suspect I grew up thinkingthat grown-up books had to have dead bodies in them.

What was your experience of school?I went to a school that took the view of pushing everybodytowards academic excellence, but there was also a sense thatgirls went off to be secretaries or nurses, so there was a kindof cognitive dissonance! We had one set of messages thatthere were limitations on what you could do but there wasanother set of messages that you could do what you wanted.

When I decided I wanted to go to Oxford University, therewas a sense at school of “We don’t want you to apply forOxford because you won’t get in and that will reflect badlyon us” but it was a very different story when I did get in(“We always said you’d do well”) but that’s human nature!

You worked as a journalist at the MirrorGroup for 15 years after you left university.Did you always want to write fiction?I always wanted to be a story-teller from when I realised that itwas a job, that people wrote books that appeared in the libraryand were paid for it: everything I did was geared towards oneday being able to write a book that could be published.

When I graduated from university, I started writing the“great English novel”. When you are 20, you think you knowthe secrets of the universe but actually you know bugger all,and I wrote this unbelievably callow novel – about which theonly good thing you could say was that I finished it.

I think it was rejected by every publishing house in London– by the end, people I hadn’t even submitted it to were sendingme letters saying “Please don’t send us this book!”

I persisted because it was the thing I wanted to do and itnever occurred to me not to keep trying – and that comes backto my background and my experiences growing up, that youdon’t give up because you fail the first time round.

When did you become a full-time writer?I gave up the day job in 1991, four years after my first novelReport for Murder was published. I thought I’ve got to makethe jump, I’ve got to take the risk, I’ve got to bet on myself.

I did my sums on the back of an envelope and I figuredif I cut my expenses right back to the bone, basically if I keptthe roof over my head and fed myself and didn’t do very muchelse I could afford to live on two books a year at that rateof payment.

I was very lucky: I’d always been with Mirror Group andwe had a very good redundancy agreement so after 15 years’service, I basically went out the door with a year’s money – andthat kept me afloat for 18 months, which made it possible forme to keep my head above water while I got myself established.

What did you make of the stories in thenew Quick Read collection Life’s Too Short,for which you’ve written the foreword?

I loved the way that this collection really takesyou inside people’s lives. I really enjoyedreading people’s take on their world –I felt like I’d been given privileged access.

We all make assumptions about peoplewho do particular jobs – what those jobsentail, what those people must belike to do that kind of job – and what’ssurprising about this collection is that itmakes you stop and question your ownpreconceptions, and that’s always good

for all of us but particularly good for writers: we think weknow how the world works and we need to be shaken up.

When will your own next book be published?I’m currently working on a standalone novel called The Costof Everything which is due to be delivered at the end of Marchand published in September. The journalistic habit that persistsis that I can never do anything until the deadline looms. I’mfeeling my way in, I know what it’s about, I’m writing – I saythat in the slightly desperate voice my editors have come toknow and fear!

Born in Fife 1955, Val was the firststudent from a Scottish state schoolto win a place at St Hilda’s College,Oxford, where she studied from1972 to 1975.

On leaving university, shetrained as a journalist with MirrorGroup Newspapers, where shestayed for 15 years, and whereshe was still working when she

published her first novel ReportFor Murder in 1987.

A full-time writer since 1991,Val has already contributed herown title to the Quick Reads series,Cleanskin, and has written theintroduction for the new QuickReads collection of workplacestories Life’s Too Short, publishedon World Book Day in March.

Val McDermid CV

Let’s get towork!Participants attended workshops including: learning in arecession; access higher education; and apprenticeships.

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Annual Conference

The country was facing stern economic and political tests,he argued, and was in the midst of the worst economic crisissince the Depression, triggered by greed in the City, and feltby everyone except those who caused it.

On the political front, the impending general electionwould be fought between those who argued for a return tobusiness as usual versus those who believed in controllingthe banking and financial sector which got us into troublein the first place, he said.

Learning made a real difference to the economy by helpingkeep businesses afloat (companies which didn’t train weretwo-and-a-half times more likely to fail, he pointed out).

It also built bridges between management and workers.“Many employers says learning has improved industrialrelations and gives a real boost to the quality of working life,”he said.

“We’ve got to get our message through the electioncampaign – we’re going to have to make those argumentsregardless of who’s in power,” he said.

Learning was now more central to union work than it wasa decade ago, he pointed out.

Training 24,000 union learning reps around the country hadbeen a fantastic achievement: “You’ve got a lot to be proudof,” he told participants, since one in four ULRs come from theSouthern and Eastern Region.

He applauded the new Community and Trade UnionLearning Centre recently opened on the 2012 site by theOlympics Delivery Authority and unionlearn SERTUC as“exactly the kind of flagship project” unions could deliver.

There remained much to do, he argued. “I still get asked thequestion what have unions got to do with learning – I’ll countit a great success when people stop asking me that.”

We’vereachedthe skillscrossroads

This is a critical moment in the development of the learning and skillsagenda, unionlearn Director Tom Wilson told the fourth annual unionlearnSERTUC conference in November.

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How to getworld class skillsThere are significant challenges ahead if the UK is to drivethe skills levels of its workforce to world-class levels, UniteHead of Lifelong Learning Tom Beattie told the conference.

Britain’s biggest union wanted the Government to set up atraining levy to generate funds for learning and developmentand to encourage employer buy-in, he explained.

And while it welcomed the new right to request time totrain at work, it believed the legislation didn’t go far enough– the Government should introduce a right to training withpaid time off, he argued.

The union was looking for firm commitments fromthe Government to plough additional resources intoapprenticeships, said Tom, himself a former apprenticewith British Steel.

Since low pay was a major reason for non-completion ofapprenticeships, the union continued to press for apprenticepay to be aligned with the National Minimum Wage, and withthe lowest-paid concentrated in traditionally “female” sectors,it wanted more to be done to combat gender segregation.

“Skills, training and education have always been centralto what unions do – they’ve been inscribed on our bannersfor over 100 years,” he pointed out.

What’syour story?Michelle Treagust from the Reading Agency encouragedparticipants to enter the BBC My Story competition bysetting everyone a quiz, featuring anagrams of famousfilms based on true life stories and photographs of TV actorsplaying real life characters. The competition itself is nowclosed, but you can read many entries online and thewinners are due to be filmed later this year.

Visit: www.bbc.co.uk/mystory

Another wayto learn as you earnBy combining academic study with workplace learning,Foundation degrees offered significant opportunities to adultsin the workplace, explained Foundation Degree Forward (fdf)Director of Workplace Learning Strategy Susan Hayday.

Foundation degrees helped people to find the time to study.One Foundation degree student had commented: “One of thefirst things that attracted me to enrol was because it was work-based and part-time,” Susan said.

They could also encourage progression at work, leading tohigher level NVQs, professional qualifications and Honoursdegrees. Another student had said: “Achieving the Foundationdegree has opened doors at work that would otherwise havebeen closed.”

The Government was committed to ensuring greater accessto higher level skills, she said. The higher education frameworkHigher Ambitions had declared: “We will expand new types ofhigher education programmes that widen opportunities forflexible study for young people and adults and reflect thereality of modern working lives.”

Originally set up in 2003 to support the developmentand delivery of Foundation degrees, fdf soon realised thatthe focus of its work needed to be with employers, she said.

Unionlearn SERTUC and fdf were running a project aimedat developing joint activity to support employer and employeeengagement in higher-level skills development, she said.

The pilot aimed to raise awareness and aspirations;produce information and resources; publish guidance fornegotiating with employers; and promote links with highereducation colleges.

Contacts

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Unionlearn Southern and Eastern Region

Congress HouseGreat Russell StreetLondon WC1B 3LS020 7467 1251

Outreach offices

Haywards Heath 014444 59733Harlow 01279 408188London 020 7467 1342

Regional education office: 020 7467 1284

Regional manager

Barry Francis bfrancis@tuc.org.uk

Regional union development coordinator

Jon Tennison jtennison@tuc.org.uk

Regional development workers

Mick Hadgraft mhadgraft@tuc.org.ukAdrian Ryan aryan@tuc.org.ukTrish Raftery praftery@tuc.org.uk

Project workers

Rickey Denton rdenton@tuc.org.ukJane Warwick jwarwick@tuc.org.ukSean Ruddy sruddy@tuc.org.ukJaspal Ghtoray jghtoray@tuc.org.ukGabi Upton gupton@tuc.org.ukStuart Barber sbarber@tuc.org.uk

U-Net support workers

Sarah-Louise Lacey slacey@tuc.org.ukPhil Spry pspry@tuc.org.uk

Recession and recovery workers

Katie Curtis kcurtis@tuc.org.ukFred Grindrod fgrindrod@tuc.org.ukColin Lloyd clloyd@tuc.org.uk

Regional education officers

Rob Hancock rhancock@tuc.org.ukAngela Perry aperry@tuc.org.uk

Administration

Sonia Dawson sdawson@tuc.org.ukKelly Hillock khillock@tuc.org.ukJohanna Garcia jgarcia@tuc.org.uk

Cover photograph of Val McDermid by Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk

Cambridge collegewinsQuality AwardVal McDermid presents John Pritchard (left), head of theLearning Shop at Cambridge Regional College, with theunionlearn Quality Award for the delivery of its ITQ (Level 2)City & Guilds Certificate. With them is Martin Harding, the FireBrigades Union Cambridgeshire Union Learning Coordinator.

Child labourimage tops pollBangladeshi photographer KM Asad won the LabourStartLabour Photo of the Year competition at the end of last yearwith this striking image of a young Bangladeshi boy in ashipbuilding factory, where unpaid apprentices work inextreme conditions without safety equipment for manyyears. Over 3,000 people cast their votes in the 2009competition run by the LabourStart web portal, with KMAsad’s picture winning by a wide margin.

©KM

Asad