Welcome to another year of Yorkshire & Humberside’s Regional Education and Training Programme for 2019. It is our priority to have as diverse and suitable courses to meet all the needs of both our members and activists both new and old. Again this year we have endeavored to have courses as widely assessable as possible by offering access across the region, and making more use of the TUC both in the classroom and online. UNISON is also developing its own on line workshops and e-notes.
You can find the 2019 Education Programme here...
We are continuing to support venues from across the region as well as delivering more at the Regional HQ in Leeds; and we will also continue to use Northern College.
The massive unrelenting Tory cuts are continuing to affect not only Trade Union education but all adult further education, which makes our Lifelong Learning and member learning access even more important for our members and potential members and activists. In addition to our Regional Education Team, and our Organisers will continue working with branches, along with their organising duties to develop Lifelong Learning and ensure activists are trained to the highest standards with courses on most TU subjects. Learning and training are now firmly embedded with all branches development and future plans.
The programme is designed to increase access to the most up to date training UNISON can offer, both for new and developing existing activists. The courses provided are directly aimed at building confidence and developing skills and abilities. We are sure that both you and UNISON will benefit from the experience.
It is never too late to learn.
Branch development is vital in recruiting and organising and retaining members. We are constantly striving to increase membership and provide a better service. Increasing membership and developing new activists from all sectors of the union will make us stronger and more representative of our members.
We believe that no member should be out of pocket attending UNISON courses. Branches and the Region will continue to contribute to ensure this, and access is freely available to as many members / activist as possible. Any additional travel costs or carer costs can be claimed from your branch, but you do need to speak to your branch and get their agreement in advance (details of help can be found within this programme).
We also offer for clarity a separate members only training programme detailing some of the courses/workshops UNISON offers for non activist members. You can obtain a copy of this from your branch education co-ordinator or Branch Secretary. You can always find it on our website www.unison-yorks.org.uk/education.html.
We pride ourselves on offering an extremely friendly relaxed and supportive learning environment, and this gives opportunities to meet new people make new friends and build networks with other branches and activists learners to build on knowledge and skills. Working together with other trade unionists to achieve common goals is at the fundamental core of our organisation and we offer many opportunities for development.
So please access and enjoy our learning offer and don’t be afraid to comment on things that went well or not as well as we are always striving to improve your learning experience and all feedback is carefully considered and used to improve our delivery.
This year we are offering many short workshops on various subjects such as Dementia, Autism, Retirement, alongside our Confidence Building workshops for both women and men.
The TUC now offer fully online and integrated courses webinars as well as E-notes. We will also be introducing Return to Learn and Women’s Lives workshop taster sessions as a first step in unleashing members potential.
I hope you will participate and enjoy what we have to offer and I firmly believe UNISON has the best trained activist of any other union in the UK.
Wendy Nichols
Regional Convenor
You can find the 2019 Education Programme here...
