Joan with local
Union Learning Rep Sean Pender
In April 2009, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government John Denham joined me and local union reps to celebrate the success of training 22,000 union learning reps 1 year ahead of schedule. Union Reps enable workers to access courses in subjects such as IT, English and Maths and have benefited countless people.
Union Learn aims for unions to become learning organisations and supports unions offer learning opportunities to their members. I am a keen supporter of the idea of lifelong learning and believe that unions can help make a valuable contribution to the skill set of their members by allowing for study at the workplace or through a local college or learning provider.