The government’s Lifelong Learning policy for Scotland is about ‘personal fulfilment and enterprise, employability and adaptability, active citizenship and social inclusion’. What does that mean?
For UNISON it means trying to encourage a culture in which education and training is available and accessible for everyone.
UNISON has been at the forefront of developing lifelong learning for people called non traditional learners, that is people who have had a poor experience of learning in the past, people who lack confidence in their own abilities or who feel school was so long ago that they could never study again.
However by learning UNISON doesn’t mean just getting the skills needed to do a particular job. Lifelong Learning should mean learning in the broadest sense, gaining skills and confidence to progress and participate in work, in the union and in the wider community.
UNISON wants to make sure that as many members as possible have opportunities for learning at work. This is why UNISON has put so much time and money into the development of the Return to Learn programme. Increasingly Return to Learn is being delivered in the workplace through partnership with the employers and the Workers Educational Association. This approach enables UNISON to reach many of the ‘non traditional learners’. As part of this approach UNISON has developed the role of Union Learning Representative.