Trade Unions and Lifelong Guidance. NICEC TUC Briefing

Increasingly, people need lifelong access to high quality guidance on choices relating to learning and work. Unions can plan a key role as advocates and deliverers of information, advice, and guidance. Lifelong learning and guidance assume more importance as the concept of a job for life disappears. Career guidance helps individuals explore their options, develop the confidence and knowledge to make informed choices, and learn how to make plans and put them into effect. Front-line guidance activities are probably of most direct relevance to unions. They realize the long-term value of lifelong learning and guidance initiatives to company and individuals and find their involvement increases their attractiveness to members and prospective members. Unions can play key roles in developing learning and guidance provision: providing the necessary atmosphere of trust and credibility; reaching out and communicating; identifying employees' learning needs and feeding them back to management; acting as advocates; and working with management to develop provision. Depending on their skills, union representatives can be involved in such roles as signposting, brokerage, and front-line guidance. Unions may help identify opportunities for companies to extend guidance to the local community. Help may be available to unions through partnerships and networks; training is available. A model has been developed that summarizes the key features most commonly shared by companies with a culture of learning and guidance. (YLB)