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| George Waldron has a background in transport where he was a health & safety representative and lay tutor for the TGWU union. He is now course co-ordinator at Stow College, Glasgow. He is currently developing a tutors' handbook on the environment for the Trades Union Congress education service. After participating in the original TUC online learning project he is now a part of the Stow team, currently delivering a large online programme across Scotland. He describes below a partnership project in health and safety. |
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For the European Week of Safety 2001 Stow College Trade Union Education Department organised a highly successful project entitled 'Adopting Safe Practice'. The project was funded by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA), and was supported by the TUC, print and building unions GPMU and UCATT, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and private companies Morrisons and Laing O'Rourke Scotland Ltd. OSHA, in their own publication, called the project 'The Power of Partnership' (ISBN 92-9191-017-1), and refer to the joint initiative bringing together the further education sector, trade unions, private sector companies and themselves as the enforcement agency.
The project was designed to take a partnership approach in raising the awareness of preventative safety techniques in small companies through an adoption scheme by the larger organisations in the construction and paper industries. The large construction sites and paper mills in Scotland identified contractors, sub-contractors and supply chain owners, managers and employees for training, and hosted several of the project workshops.
The main section of the project was the delivery of a combined package of information and training through a series of products, including, an awareness raising pack for 400 employees of small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). Also included were the delivery of six one day workshops targeting 120 employees in small companies, two three-day training courses giving greater depth of knowledge and legislative requirements for employee representatives, managers and owners and an on-line forum and training area using the TUC Learnonline education services. All of the training packages were accredited through the Open College Network.
The major successes of the project were the awareness raising pack, the training and workshops and the partnership itself. The awareness raising pack offered a multi-purpose sixteen-page tool kit that covered workplace inspection, risk assessment, incident reporting and investigation and the importance of effective communication. The glossy design and style of the pack meant it could be used flexibly as either part of an induction training programme or as a pull out guide for posting in appropriate areas. It also offered a checklist for workplace inspection, and pro-forma for risk assessment and for incident reporting, all of which proved most useful for the SME target group. UCATT and the GPMU played a major rôle in the dissemination of the pack, and as a result there have been several enquiries to roll this part of the project out on a national scale.
The majority of the training and workshops were taken out and delivered in the adopting employers' sites. That meant they were held across Scotland from the paper mills in Aberdeen and Glenrothes to the Scottish Parliament construction site in Edinburgh. The hosts managed to reach a target group that would not normally attend further education or the trade union education department for training, and also developed much needed communication between the host employers and their own respective supply chains. The sustainability of the project was supported by a series of follow-up workplace inspections, the undertaking of risk assessments and by providing a conferencing facility, on the TUC Learnonline system, to discuss and disseminate good practice.
Perhaps the most successful outcome was the partnership itself. The project clearly shows that the trade unions, the employers and the enforcement agents make a formidable force when they choose to pull their resources together. Of some two hundred applications the Stow College partnership bid was one of only three successful in the UK. Many spin-off events have taken place since the project ended, and the partnership has been reformed to bid for the 2003 European Week of Safety. If successful the project will focus on occupational health issues in the workplace, and in particular the occupational health risks faced by women at work. The partnership has been expanded to include shop workers' union USDAW and the Scottish Retail Consortium.
Sometimes it is difficult to disagree with the arguments and the statements given for ending partnership initiatives, but you have to put something in to get something out.
'The most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world' is the familiar phrase used to describe the commitment which EU leaders gave at Lisbon in 2000 to the use of an enhanced education sector in the future European economy. Education Commissioner Viviane Reding recently took stock of progress towards this goal and found it disappointing in several respects. Speaking at the World Education Market she criticised the proportion of public spending going into education. Although 60% of European adults had not gone beyond secondary education, only one in ten were trying to remedy this with lifelong learning while 20% of EU youngsters still dropped out of school prematurely. The private sector did not escape her remonstration either 'there is a real deficit in private investment in Europe, especially as far as higher education and continuing education is concerned', she stated. The average of 2.3% of salary costs spent by companies on staff training must rise to 5% by 2010 if the Lisbon objectives were to be met.
Measures were being taken however and she listed targets set for early school leavers, science graduates and their gender balance and increases in literacy and lifelong learning participation. In practical terms co-ordination of different qualifications in vocational education, single entry points and Europe-wide benchmarks to ensure quality are needed to achieve the Lisbon ideals of education for all. For those seeking to enter work direct from school the research shows that vocational training aids them, both in getting their first job and achieving stable employment. Those without qualifications are much more at the mercy of swings in the economy. Concerning the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), access to the technology is not enough, suggests the research. How a school or college uses the ICT is just as important and teacher training appears to be critical. Summing up Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin said 'Ensuring that everyone in an enlarged European Union has access to learning opportunities is vital if we are to invest in our kids' future'.
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