Why has the government set up the ULF and where did the ULR role come from?
• The government, in the late nineties, commissioned reports to see if the UK workforce is on track to compete with other countries in skills and the business needs of the future. • They found out that the UK is 17th out of 30 industrialised countries for adults without the skills needed for a modern economy. • One in five adults, it stated, are functionally illiterate – that is, if given the Yellow Pages they cannot find the page for plumbers • The Moser report made 17 recommendations and one recommendation was to develop a new union role (Union Learning Representative) that would support and encourage people into learning.
