STUC/TUC Education “Unions into Schools”
“Unions into Schools” was originally part of The Scottish Executive – Enterprise in Education agenda in 2006. The programme of school visits has been co-ordinated and managed by the STUC (Dave Moxham, Pauline Walker and Terry Anderson) and supported by a 10 day training programme delivered by TUC Education tutors at Stow College. The training course is supplemented by an on-line training resource that is constantly available, this allows reps to share experiences of school visits and build a practical knowledge base of best practice. All trade union school reps have completed a basic disclosure check, this can be applied for on-line and the STUC offer assistance and support in dealing with any disclosure or application issues.
School visits have taken place throughout Scotland to S3/4 and S5/6 pupils. At present the STUC trade union school reps have delivered over 60 classroom visits to approximately 2000 school pupils, the visits themselves are normally for a single or double period and ideally are preceded by a pre-school visit that enables the union reps and the STUC to introduce themselves to key school personnel and build a picture of how they might deliver their presentation. The most recent school visits in the new term have been to schools in West Lothian, Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Inverness and Edinburgh. The Unions into Schools reps will be visiting a number of schools in Invergordon, Bathgate, Glasgow, Fife and Greenock later in 2008.
The visits have re-enforced supportive research to suggest that around half of pupils are working either part-time or on a casual basis whilst still in school. Pupils often have questions and queries about their current working conditions and reps are able to offer answers based on their experience and knowledge of the law. “Unions into Schools” is seen as an important link in raising awareness to young people, future workers and future employers of how to build a good working environment in the workplace. Training topics to pupils have included health and safety, issues for young workers, the global economy and workers of the world, employment rights, the law at work, the minimum wage, the living wage campaign, trade union representation, the role of the trade union and negotiation. The sessions have been delivered in an interactive style and are normally delivered by 2 trained schools reps.
Many teachers and head teachers have stated that the experience of meeting trade union reps and debating issues at work compliment the modern studies core education agenda which includes work on campaign groups, politics, history and trade unions. The pupils who fill out an evaluation form have given the union rep visits an overwhelming thumbs up- our latest statistics showing a 95% excellent or very good rating. 40 reps have been trained so far, with 13 being from PCS. Other unions involved include BECTU, TGWU-UNITE, Amicus-UNITE, UNISON, GMB, Prospect, The Bakers Union, TSSA, Community, RMT, UCATT, CWU, FBU and ASLEF
The latest training course took place at Stow College in Glasgow between Monday 19th November until 17th December, and ran for 5 Mondays, a further course is scheduled for Thurso College in Caithness from May 12th to May 16th 2008 and we are planning to deliver a further course in Fife or Dundee in September 2008. Please note there are limited spaces for this course so please make contact with the STUC at your earliest opportunity if you wish to participate. The STUC can assist with any issues regarding facility time by sending out a supportive letter from the Scottish Government who support and will hopefully continue to fund a core element of the visits programme. Reps will be asked to take part in a minimum of one school visit, but can assist in more if available.
“Unions into Schools” featured in the recent Trade Union week at the Scottish parliament where pupils from S5 and S6 at Leith Academy took part in an interactive employment rights and negotiation session with union reps, TUC tutors, STUC, MSP’s and teachers. The project was also included in a motion put forward by Cathie Peattie MSP on young people’s role in society and the workplace. Minutes from the debate can be found through this link
The STUC and Unions into Schools reps were delighted to receive cross-party support from MSP’s for the project at workshops and drop-in sessions. The STUC are currently awaiting news regarding future funding for Unions into Schools under the “Determined to Succeed” budget.
The Unions into Schools pack which has been drawn up by union reps, TUC Education and the STUC will be launched in spring this year, we will release details of a promotion event nearer the launch date.
For more information or to take part in this project, please contact Terry Anderson, STUC Union & Community Development Officer, on 077791 704 682 or at tanderson@stuc.org.uk or Pauline Walker, STUC Administration Team on 0141 337 8105 or at pwalker@stuc.org.uk