DEVELOP a successful union-organised workplace skills training scheme using “pump-priming” government funding.

Win co-operation and support from some of Britain’s biggest employers to train more than 200,000 workers a year in new skills which make them more productive and better paid.

Team up with further and higher education providers to expand the training available.

Achieve a return on costs of up to £11 for every £1 invested — including a two-fold return to the Exchequer.

After 22 years of success withdraw the government funding in order to wreck the scheme.

What was that last bit?

In March next year the government will withdraw the £12 million annual funding the Department for Education gives to the Union Learning Fund — Unionlearn — Britain’s most innovative and successful workplace skills training programme.

Why?

Because, as its name declares, the training scheme involves trade unions. And the Tory government doesn’t like trade unions. 

It will do everything in its power to remove them from every strata of society in which they are active.

Unions have been attacked before, of course. Margaret Thatcher’s brutal use of police and a biased judiciary against miners, print workers and others in the 1980s, for example.

When she came to power in 1979, trade union membership was 13.5 million. Today it is six million.

Despite those setbacks, trade unions are still here, and the current government hates that.

It also knows that police brutality and a politically bent judiciary are not the weapons currently needed to continue the Tories’ relentless campaign to destroy trade unions.

Instead, actions such as the withdrawal of annual “pump-priming” funding from operations like Unionlearn are more appropriate.

The difference with Unionlearn is that destroying it will be damaging not only for workers and their trade unions — it will hurt employers. 

It will slow down rate of productivity improvements which come from having better-skilled workforces, which Unionlearn creates. 

That affects employers’ profits and Unionlearn has the support of hundreds of employers, among them some of the biggest names in British industry and commerce.

They include Tesco, Heathrow airport, Tata Steel, Hinkley Point C nuclear power station development, FirstBus, CrossCountry rail, British Steel and Arla Foods, and industry bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

The employers are bewildered by the government’s decision to withdraw Unionlearn funding, because, unlike the unions, they do not recognise that the Tories’ ideological hatred of trade unions overrides economic logic.

Unionlearn’s success is, to this government, like a painful tooth. It has to be rooted out.

Unionlearn was launched by the Trade Union Congress and its constituent unions in 1998, shortly after Labour came to power following 19 years of disastrous Tory rule.

Labour provided the first “pump-priming” funding needed to generate further investment in Unionlearn 22 years ago.

Financial support continued under a succession of governments, including the Tory-Lib Dem coalition and then the Tory governments of David Cameron and Theresa May.

Unions and employers sign Lifelong Learning Agreements, which guarantee that every employee has the opportunity to improve their workplace skills.

Recognising the potential, and the fact that there was barely any cost to themselves, employers piled on board. 

Any anti-union animosity was outweighed by employers’ knowledge that a workforce with more skills benefits companies and profits as well as workers.

Unionlearn training covers a wide range of skills, including helping workers from overseas to improve their English, training in skills such as information technology and issues which go beyond the workplace, such as understanding mental health and disability issues.

Unite, the UK’s and Ireland’s biggest trade union with 1.3 million members, is an enthusiastic supporter of Unionlearn.

It has Lifetime Learning Agreements with more than 300 employers covering 700,000 workers.

A recent independent survey by the University of Exeter found that Unite’s scheme has contributed £325.6 million to the economy, has increased workers’ incomes by almost £200m, and has given employers nearly £125.8m through increased productivity.

The return to the Exchequer is in excess of £94m. 

The Fire Brigades Union’s (FBU) training and learning project includes fitness and nutrition, digital skills and health and social care.

FBU said that the scheme has increased wages by £16.5m, and that benefits to employers through increased productivity were around £12.4m.

The FBU said Unionlearn is “one of the most effective programmes allowing workers to expand their skillset,” with a “lucrative return on investment” for the Treasury. 

Shopworkers’ union Usdaw has taken Unionlearn into supermarkets and warehouses.

General secretary Paddy Lillis said: “Unionlearn reaches the people other schemes do not, with brilliant lay union reps supporting, guiding and mentoring workers back into education.”

Usdaw quotes case studies of supermarket check-out staff undertaking skilled apprenticeships after being trained through Unionlearn.

One Tesco checkout worker is now on the second stage of an apprenticeship in information technology.

The TUC’s nine regional offices are involved in Unionlearn.

Northern TUC secretary Beth Farhat said: “Union learning representatives support on average 250,000 adults a year into education and training, ranging from entry-level qualifications to further and higher education courses.

“These projects work with community members. Workers come together and learn about the importance of mental health, take on apprenticeships and gain qualifications so they can further their careers.

“They’ve gained friends and confidence and contributed back to their workplaces and communities.”

Train drivers’ union Aslef is also involved.

A group of staff employed by train operator CrossCountry in Plymouth completed a British sign language course.

They learned to sign greetings, the time, the weather, directions and travel information for deaf and partially deaf passengers.

Withdrawal of government funding of £12m — a minuscule amount in public spending terms — was announced through Education Secretary Gavin Williamson’s department this month.

The announcement prompted an outcry from trade unions, with the TUC launching a Save Union Learning campaign.

But the difference with this issue, as against other union campaigns, is that employers agree with the unions on the usefulness and success of Unionlearn.

Not that they’re ready to raise the barricades — but they are making their frustration at the government’s decision known.

Louise Dobson, head of learning and development at Hinkley Point C, said: “The introduction of a Lifelong Learning Agreement, signed jointly between our signatory unions and key employers on the project, emphasises the important role that union education and training contributes to supporting the development needs and career aspirations across a diverse workforce.

“The withdrawal of the Unionlearn funding will have a detrimental impact on the ability to offer quality flexible learning and development solutions.”

Paula Stannett, Heathrow airport’s chief people officer, said: “The announcement that funding support for the Union Learning Fund is to be ended is as disappointing as it is perplexing.

“The unprecedented impact that this pandemic is having on jobs across the UK means there has never been a more critical time to invest in upskilling. We urge the government to rethink its decision.”

Chris Jaques, human resources director at Tata Steel, described Unionlearn as a “brilliant initiative” allowing the company and unions “jointly to raise the capability of our workforce resulting in a more effective and productive organisation.

“The loss of the Union Learning Fund would certainly be detrimental to achieving the pace of change and future workforce skills to which our industry aspires,” he said.

Of course, the government doesn’t declare the real motivation behind the funding decision — its hatred of unions, and its determination to destroy them.

Announcing the funding axe, the Department for Education said this month: “We have taken the decision not to continue to provide grant funding to Unionlearn the next financial year. 

“We will instead be investing the money to directly support further education colleges, other training providers and our new £2.5 billion National Skills Fund to help more people learn new skills and prepare for the jobs of the future. 

“The Prime Minister also recently announced a new ‘lifetime skills guarantee’ offering adults without an A-level or equivalent qualification a fully funded course.”

So the truth, as usual, comes from other sources.

Matt Wrack of the FBU said the decision “blatantly places partisan politics over sensible policy-making and the needs of the economy.”

Every other union involved in Unionlearn has drawn the same conclusion, and issued statements accordingly.

Keith Richmond, who works at Aslef, summed it up: “The decision on Unionlearn funding is a spiteful, sly and vindictive act.

“Anything that involves organised labour, they will attack and try to destroy.

“Boris Johnson would rather have a pool of unemployed labour that employers could hire and fire at will, just like in the Victorian age.

“They would rather see us back in the days of the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

“They do not like workers getting together, and they are coming for us.”