Unionlearn traditionally works with unions to provide workplace learning opportunities to workers across England. This would normally involve lots of face to face learning along with distance learning resources delivered through a whole network of union Learning Centres in workplaces.

The current pandemic along with the call on people to stay safe at home has led to a lot of events and activities being immediately put on hold for the foreseeable future. So the unionlearn Service Team began exploring ways to support learners at home. With workers being furloughed or encouraged to work from home as well as many having caring responsibilities or needing to self-isolate, time was of the essence and the team were very keen to start rolling out support resources as soon as possible.

Within a few weeks the new campaign page “Learning@Home” was live – and packed full of ideas, resources, information and support. It was unusual in the fact that most campaigns unionlearn run have a pretty defined start and finish date – such as the annual Maths Workout Week or Literacy Works Week. This new campaign is ongoing and new elements are being added on an almost weekly basis as we continue to promote new resources.

 

The main page has a lot of free resources and support including:

• Free bite-sized eLearning units
• Skills Network CPD units around health
• Our Careerzone 'one-stop-shop' for career information
• Unionlearn’s SkillCheck tool with a growing number of learning themes
• Apprenticeship Essentials app packed full of information
• The National Numeracy Challenge free online numeracy assessment tool 
• The Climbing Frame free online resource
• Open University – six free online courses to help with your career

There are also sections that are aimed to support home learners with tips and ideas along with resources to children to continue learning and give workers the skills needed to provide support. TUC Education provides a range of training and they are included and we also signpost learners to unionlearn parter, Wranx, who we are working to provide free bite-sized Functional Skills and GCSE maths & English revision online.

This all sounds like a packed website full of resources, but there is more. Each week during lockdown unionlearn has been running webinars to support learners. These webinars have been very popular, with hundreds of learners registering each week to hear from union learning reps, officers and trainers. All the webinars have been loaded up to the unionlearn YouTube page, which can be accessed through the website, so people can catch up with sessions they may have missed first time around.

The webinars are constantly being added too, but at the moment include:

• Tackling Isolation
• Apprenticeships and Covid-19
• Study Skills
• Tools to create your own future
• Staying positive in lockdown and beyond
• Green Skills for a just transition
• You, your kids and online safety
• Laughter Yoga
• Demystifying free online learning

 

The Learning@Home website is being added to all the time and it’s worth coming back to regularly to see what the latest resources are. We are also very keen to hear from people about areas that could be added, so just drop us a line at unionlearn@tuc.org.uk. You can go to the Learning@Home website to find out more.

 

Keep in touch with the latest updates on unionlearn’s social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter.

 

 

 

Keith Hatch is the Projects Communications Officer with unionlearn, the learning and skills arm of the TUC (Trade Union Congress). Keith sources case studies and news stories for the unionlearn website and social media platforms and supports the organisations events.

 

 

 

 

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