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Issue Date:- 07 December 2008

THE LEARNBUS PROVES A ONE-WAY TICKET TO SUCCESS

THERE'S no set route and you don’t need a ticket. But once you’ve been aboard there’s no limit to where you can go! Well almost no limit.

The Learnbus is the latest venture from the GMB and unionlearn, the TUC’s learning and skills organisation that works with unions and employers to offer workplace training.  It is being used as a mobile learning centre, travelling between workplaces that do not have learning facilities. As it is a double decker, it can offer far more services than single-decker buses that have been used for the same purpose.

The top deck features an IT suite. Similar facilities are also available downstairs for disabled visitors. The lower deck is laid out as an advice and information centre so visitors can learn what learning opportunities are available.

Unionlearn project worker Marie Qazzaz first devised the idea of a Learnbus while working with Stagecoach staff at two of its sites that did not have learning centres.

Unionlearn’s John Halligan, GMB education officer Alfie Jones and GMB Regional Secretary Paul McCarthy put together a successful bid to the Union Learning Fund. The bid explained that the bus would bring learning to workplaces through the GMB’s Learning Routes scheme.

It is now travelling across Merseyside, Lancashire and Greater Manchester, helping remove barriers to learning in the workplace.

Unionlearn’s Regional Manager Dave Eva said:- "It’s a great initiative and we are glad to be supporting it. Improving access to learning by taking the learning to workplaces is a key part of unionlearn’s strategy for reaching people who need to upskill but don’t get the opportunity because of their home responsibilities or because their employer can’t or won’t offer them training.  We think that more providers and employers should help unions develop facilities like these to ensure we have the best trained and most competitive workforce we can."

Great reaction to new union learning centre at British Nuclear Group, Warrington

STAFF at the British Nuclear Group Sellafield’s premises in Warrington are gaining the learning benefits of a link-up between the company, staff union Prospect and unionlearn, the TUC’s learning and skills organisation.

More than 65 of the staff at the site have already started courses at the centre, which was opened by local MP Helen Jones and Barry Snelson, the company’s Managing Director.

The centre at the Risley site is run by Prospect’s seven on-site union learning reps (ULRs) with assistance from unionlearn project workers. It also has links with the main BNG learning centre at Sellafield.

Since opening with unionlearn’s help, the Risley centre has started to offer a total of 88 courses in a variety of subjects, including numeracy, literacy, IT skills and project management.

Unionlearn and Prospect proposed a learning centre to the company and emphasised the benefits of encouraging workforce learning and training – higher skilled workers, a more motivated and enthusiastic workforce and greater levels of staff retention.

BNG Sellafield agreed and gave the go ahead.

Dave Eva, unionlearn’s Regional Manager, said:- “This is an important development for BNG and the unions in the development of the company learning network.

The sector they are in is vital to the North West economy and we hope that this joint approach to learning will help keep them at the cutting edge.”


Barry Snelson added:- “We fully support this trade union-led initiative and are pleased to see this new learning centre which will offer many of our employees a whole raft of new opportunities and challenges.”

Next of kin appeal - Janet McBride

WIRRAL Coroner's office are trying to trace the next of kin for a woman who was found dead at her home on 1 January 2008.

Janet McBride, 64, was found at her home address in Bertha Gardens, Birkenhead.

There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death.

Any next of kin, or anyone who has information about her next of kin, is asked to  contact the coroner's office on 0151 625 2207/5042.

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