Learning and ULRs

Prospect is committed to promoting and supporting members' personal and career development.

Lifelong learning is the process of continual learning throughout our lives. Every day brings new challenges, new learning opportunities and self-discovery. Continual learning is about acquiring new skills and improving existing ones, bringing greater choice and change for work and home.

The Prospect learning and skills project team supports this objective with innovative learning and development opportunities and by training and supporting ULRs to promote the learning and skills agenda across Prospect's diverse membership profile.

Training and development at work

In the workplace, Prospect negotiates for timely and effective training and career development opportunities for our members. We encourage our representatives to put these issues high on the bargaining agenda, and we provide a range of resources to help them do so.

ULRs

Our network of Union Learning Reps plays a key role in creating and sustaining a learning culture within the workplace working collaboratively with the branch/section.

For members interested in the learning agenda, Prospect offers a bespoke ULR training course which is supplemented with ad hoc development days. We currently have over 150 ULRs across a range of sectors.

Sector skills councils

At a broader level we are actively involved in the work of sector skills councils, UK-wide, employer-led organisations who cover defined industrial sectors. Their role is to:

• define the skills and productivity priorities for their sector
• develop strategies to deal with them
• help deliver specific action such as apprenticeships, occupational standards and new approaches to skills and productivity problems.

Prospect represents our members on various sector skills councils including Semta, Cogent, Lantra, e-skills and Energy.

See Prospect's member's guide 21: sector skills councils for more information.

The future of Sector Skills Councils is under review and this section will be updated in due course.

Other learning projects

Prospect has a variety of learning and skills projects under way, working with key partners and employers. For more details visit our Skills Projects page.