ABSTRACT
Since the late 1980s, training and learning has become an increasingly important topic on the agenda of British trade unions. The development of a range of union learning programmes, the creation of the union learning representative (ULR), and the forging of new ‘learning partnerships’ with employers, have been celebrated as a union ‘success story’ and a potential force for renewal. The current ‘new’ Labour government, committed to developing Britain as a high-skills, ‘knowledge-driven’ economy (see DTI 1998; DfES et al. 2003), has supported these developments through the creation of the Union Learning Fund (ULF) in 1998 and the provision of statutory backing for ULRs. Unions have also been offered a new position as ‘stakeholders’ or ‘partners’ within the vocational education and training (VET) system, a role they have welcomed after years of marginalisation under Conservative governments in the 1980s and 1990s.
