The purpose of the trip was two fold, firstly
to visit the various Stagecoach bus company depots in Cumbria,
secondly to look at other companies and facilities that could be
utilised in potential learning situations. I was particularly
interested in the older workers as I felt they could be more
vulnerable with any retraining or issues around Curriculum Vitae
(Cvs) if redundancies occurred in the area.
Monday 19th July 2010
Picked up Senior Union Learning Rep (ULR) Ken
Gillespie on the way to Workington where we met Alan Straughton,
the ULR from the town.
We started off by looking at the bus station
in Workington but it was as Alan had already informed us, there was
no rooms to use for learning. There was however a local Trades Hall
close to the bus station and very central in the town.
Our visit to the Trades Hall opened a number
of opportunities that we could pursue. Firstly there are courses
run there, including IT, Literacy and Numeracy. It turns out that
the courses are mainly done on line, but some are tutor led. One
problem was that the person who runs the courses is not there every
day. Also the days that they are present are not always the same.
In saying that he was there on the day that we went and was most
helpful.
There were rooms we could possibly utilise as
well as courses we could enrol people on. On top of that, there is
a Workers Education Association (WEA) office in the building that
we may be able to tap into. Unfortunately the person in the WEA
office was not there on the day but we will revisit that at a later
date.
We moved on to visit the local Unite the Union
office in Whitehaven where we gained a lot of local information
that will be very useful. I have emailed the Unite Regional
Officers who work out of the office asking for a list of local
branches that we can contact, with a view to mapping any learning
needs they may have. Alan Straughton is also going on to look at
some of the local workplaces that were suggested to us.
Next we visited the Stagecoach - Lillehall
Depot. This is the main depot for the drivers to sign on and off
and to pick up their buses. Once again there is very little room
although the engineering manager did offer to seek permission to
use a small room accommodating two PCs or laptops. It was felt that
this could be used to encourage employees who had never used a
computer to gain confidence and lose the fear factor. This in turn
would encourage them to into further learning.
We went on to the Carlisle Depot where we met
the Senior Steward, Jock. Unfortunately the
ULR had recently left the company but a notice was going to be
posted asking for nominations for the post. There had been some
interest, so it was hoped that the position would be shortly
filled.
On site the Carlisle Depot has a number of
Portacabins, one of which could possibly be shared with the
training department. It was decided to revisit this once the new
ULR has been elected. We can then more easily judge the amount of
interest that could be generated in the workplace.
Ken Gillespie contacted Graham Rushton from
unionlearn - Northern. Graham was over in Newcastle so it was not
possible to meet up with him that day. We are arranging to meet him
later to discuss plans that we have for the area.
We felt that it would be a good idea to get
John Lea invited to the ULR forum running in Carlisle. Another idea
is to look at setting up a forum in the Workington area. Both these
ideas will be discussed with Graham once a meeting had been
finalised.
Tuesday 20th July 2010
We set off to Stagecoach depot at Barrow where
we looked around the facilities on site. Alan Gowling the ULR had
been using Learn Direct to run courses although it had dried
up a little recently.
One idea was to meet up with John Inskip from
Learn Direct to see if the facility could be broadened. We also
wanted to look at other on line providers such as Alison. The Unite
the Union moodle (Learn with Unite) web site also has on line
courses accredited through OCN.
At the depot there is a training room which
could be used for other courses and this too was going to be looked
at later. There was a training vehicle at the back of the depot
which Ken was going to check on to see if we could use.
We moved on to Kendal where Stagecoach has a
smaller depot. Eric Shaw the ULR was on holiday but Ken was
familiar with the site. The depot has no facilities as it is so
small unit. The manager also appeared very negative.
Despite this we are going to meet with Eric
when he returns from holiday and look at the possibilities of
sharing a facility there. Eric has already tapped into the local
college for this purpose but we felt it may be worth looking at any
activity within the local South Lakeland District
Council.
In summarising I feel the two days were very
beneficial in a number of ways. Firstly West Cumbria in particular
the Workington area has great scope to further a learning agenda. I
felt that this stood out as somewhere waiting to be ignited with
results I am hopeful will match the local enthusiasm.
Once I have a better picture of workplaces in
the area and have spoken to Graham Rushton and one or two others, I
feel confident that we can develop the learning agenda on in the
Workington area.
In the other areas we visited, I feel that
once a new ULR is elected in Carlisle we should act quickly to move
things on. This may be done initially in the workplace but I am
also aware there are some good established learning centres in
Carlisle that may be worth approaching. I also want to attend the
ULR forum in the area to gain more information.
In the Barrow area I would like to look at all
the online facilities that are on offer, while also looking at the
possibility of tutor led courses. We can also look again at
the local facilities and workplaces to see if we can use them.
A further meeting with the ULR at Kendal will
enable us to get a better picture of what’s available locally and
also who we can partner to increase learner numbers.
John Lea
RLO
