European Funding Opens The Door To Learning For Workers in the Highlands and Islands

1st April 2015

The European Social Fund (eSF) is one of the European Union's Structural Funds, which is dedicated to improving social cohesion and economic well-being across the regions of the Union.

The Scottish Government is the ‘Managing Authority' for Structural Funds in Scotland and has overall responsibility for supervising the implementation; ongoing management; and effectiveness of the programmes.

In 2010, the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) was successful in securing ESF funding for a project entitled ‘Unions Learning and Upskilling in the Highlands and Islands', which ran from April 2011 to February 2015. The project was managed by the STUC under the banner of Scottish Union Learning and through working in partnership with trade unions, Union Learning Reps (ULRs), employers and local learning providers, it has supported over 2,000 workers - not only improving access to lifelong learning opportunities for workers in the region, but also providing many of these workers with opportunities to gain new skills and qualifications.

ESF support has enabled Scottish Union Learning to support a number of project activities, including a migrant worker initiative. Crucially, ESF support allowed Scottish Union Learning to establish the Highlands and Island Learning Fund. The Learning Fund provides an innovative source of funding that allows the collective provision of learning in the workplace, delivered at a time and place to suits the needs of learners.

The Fund also supports cross-union courses - a specific Highlands and Islands characteristic of union-led learning, whereby ULRs from different unions and workplaces in local areas organise courses for workers in that area.

The learning supported represents the diverse needs of the region's workforce and has resulted in a wide range of courses being provided. The Learning Fund has supported 159 courses, meaning that since April 2011, a union-led learning course has ran almost every week in the Highlands and Islands.

The types of courses supported include: customer care courses for migrant workers; Sage accounting for HMRC staff; maths courses for maritime workers; Locksmithing courses for joiners; Scots Law courses for journalists; and IT courses for health and social care workers, to mention but a very few.

Learning has been delivered all over the region, from Inverness to Stornoway, Thurso to Oban, Kirkwall to Broadford and Fort William to Dingwall.

Courses have been delivered in workplaces, which include care homes, offices, hospitals and even on board a few ships, as well as more traditional locations such as local colleges and learning centres.

Workers of all ages from 16 to 65 years in full, part-time and freelance work have all engaged in the learning provided, although women workers in the region are more likely to engage in union-led learning than male workers. Workers who completed courses were asked to evaluate their overall learning experience, and 96 per cent of the workers undertaking courses were satisfied with the learning provided - and over three quarters were very satisfied. Not only does this demonstrate that the courses provided through union-led learning are meeting workers' expectations, but it is also testament to the high quality of the learning delivered by learning providers across the Highlands and Islands.

Further feedback from workers demonstrates that the courses undertaken provided workers with the following benefits:
* Nearly three quarters of workers were able to extend their skills and knowledge (72 per cent) and just about half (49 per cent) developed a new skill.
* Nearly two thirds (62 per cent) advised they were incentivised to continue learning.
* Just about half (48 per cent) have increased confidence in their ability to learn.
* One in three (32 per cent) feel more able to do their job as a result of the learning undertaken and a quarter (24 per cent) felt the skills and knowledge gained will aid them in applying for other jobs.

This article appeared in the March newsletter for Highland and Islands.
See the web site at www.scottishunionlearning.com/