Just outside Swindon, on the edge of the
Wiltshire countryside, sits the large Wincanton PLC Distribution
Centre for Marks & Spencer. Along with its sister site at
Enfield in North London, these sites are responsible for all
distribution of non food items to M&S stores across southern
England. The Swindon centre employs around 700, approximately 50%
of which are agency staff and a high proportion of employees are
migrant workers, predominantly from Eastern Europe and South
Asia.
In early 2007 workplace reps began to explore
the opportunities offered by lifelong learning within in the
workplace. Within a very short time the reps discovered that there
was not only a need among the workers for courses such as ESOL but
also a desire to learn and improve their skills. Workplace rep
Jonathan Hughes took the lead role and with the assistance of Union
Learning Organisers from the Unite south west lifelong learning
team, negotiations were opened with the site management (DHL
holding the M&S contract at that time). The result of these
negotiations was the establishment of the DHL Swindon Learning
Partnership whose ultimate goal was to generate and maintain a
culture of lifelong learning at the Swindon DC.
Surveys carried out by the
newly elected ULRs found massive support for a project of learning
amongst the workforce, both permanent and agency, and the potential
for this site and its staff was obvious to the reps, organisers and
site management. The best local learning providers were identified
and invited to join the Learning Partnership these included New
College Swindon, who still deliver courses. July 2007 saw an
application for project funding submitted to the Learning Works for
All Fund, this funding allowed for a fully equipped learning centre
to be set up on site with 10 desk top computers and associated
equipment.
Meanwhile, negotiations continued, a learning
agreement, which included 50% paid time off for learning, was
signed by DHL and Unite in early 2008, 6 ULRs were elected and
trained and a steering group was established to oversee the running
of the learning centre and all courses. Membership of the steering
group consisted of ULRs, DHL management, Unite Project workers,
UnionLearn and all learning providers, this group continues to meet
every two months.
With all the necessary pieces of the puzzle
now in place, learning could begin. Successful adult literacy,
adult numeracy, ESOL and IT courses were run in the learning centre
in 2008 with all the courses being over subscribed. Each October
non accredited “fun” courses (previous courses have included garden
design and Spanish) are organised to publicise the learning centre
and its activities. This success has continued with over 200
employees attending accredited courses since the launch and more
are queuing up to start. 2010 has seen the learning partnership
organising 2 ESOL cohorts, taught numeracy classes, on line
literacy and numeracy through Learn Direct, ITQs and the first ever
Open University student. In addition Lead ULR Jonathan Hughes has
designed a course specifically for ULRs on the site which will help
them to develop within their role.
In 2009 Wincanton PLC won a five year contract
to run areas of the M&S supply chain, this included the Swindon
site. A proportion of the DHL management stayed in post and this
helped to convince Wincanton of the value of the learning centre to
its staff and business. The relationship between Wincanton, Unite
and the providers has now flourished and as a result the learning
culture has taken root. The 50% time agreement has now been
extended to include agency staff, who have worked on site for 12
months or more and a project put together by Wincanton, Unite and
N-Gaged Training has introduced apprenticeships to young members of
the workforce, whether they are permanent or agency staff.
What the future holds for this project is hard
to determine, funding cuts and the fear that the project may become
stale are major worries for the partnership. However the team and
the ULRs in particular, have been proactive when faced with these
issues. Costs of courses have been split 3 ways (Learner, Employer,
Union branch) where funding wasn’t available to allow reduced costs
for the worker. An event was organised earlier this year to promote
the partnership and raise funds, this was attended by approximately
500 people and raised £1000 for the learning centre and £1000 for
local charities. 
The partnership has developed a relationship
with the Open University which is now exploring foundation degree
courses on the site, as well as, encouraging higher education take
up. Finally a partnership with Swindon Library service is being
developed where library services and the advantages of library
membership are promoted to the workforce through the learning
centre. If successful this is a template that could be used to
encourage learning in other workplaces.
Although there will be challenges ahead, the
team of ULRs, working alongside Wincanton management and the
learning providers, have developed a project which is well set to
maintain and improve on the previous successes of the centre.
