Lifelong learning fund for unions announced

The Employment Minister has today announced details of support funding for Northern Ireland’s trade unions to expand their lifelong learning activities.

The £250,000 fund is being made available through a new Union Learning Fund for Northern Ireland, which will support training for union learning representatives, and also innovative union-led partnership projects to attract more employees into workplace learning.

The Minister Carmel Hanna also confirmed that a prospectus, setting out the criteria for support and inviting bids to the fund, is being issued to all trade unions with members in Northern Ireland, and to their prospective project partners including colleges and other learning providers.

She said: “The trade union movement has a long history of encouraging its members to recognise the value of learning and helping them to take advantage of the opportunities that are available.

"The expectation of a job for life no longer applies in the 21st century. The new global economy requires individuals, as well as organisations, to be increasingly flexible and to continually update their skills to meet the challenges ahead.

Ms Hanna added: “The opportunity to get involved in learning through the workplace, and alongside one’s fellow workers, is a powerful attraction for those who have not participated for some time, or who may have had an unsatisfactory previous learning experience.”

Highlighting the important role the trade union movement has played in developing learning activities for its members in recent years, the Minister said that the trade union movement had shown it can respond "energetically and effectively", adding that the fund would build on the foundations already laid, and help to make "lifelong learning a reality for all our people".

(GMcG)