GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

reason to come back. We have all been on courses and I have been on one,

and I will not say where, recently where it was training where someone stood

with 108 slides for 3 ½ hours going through some legal processes. It is not that

and I think students know that when they go back to the workplace and say,

“No, go, it isn’t just somebody stood talking at you”. Some student quotes. I

will not go through all these, but students say really lovely things, but then

again I would pick out the best ones, wouldn’t I? “It’s Paul droning on for five

days” – I won’t put that in. One of my favourite ones there: “I am very

impressed with the college’s commitment to equalities of opportunity”. 22% of

our students are ethnic minorities and an awful lot of those do not necessarily

have English as their first language. We have got really good at being able to

support that and not just providing materials in other languages, but helping

students, because they really want to learn English and develop those skills.

Then just, finally, the last slide, some of the future things we are looking at, so

the apprenticeships we would love to get involved in, delivery at Quorn Grange

now as well. There is a fantastic facility there. I would love to take Northern

College, what we do and how we do it, down to Quorn so they can make sure

that carries on. Developing workplace skills amongst members and

nonmembers. What a fantastic recruitment tool it is if you can say, “Look, we

can progress you to Northern College’s residential courses, these are the

things that are available to members”. I do not want to start the debate about

nonmembers but what a great recruitment tool it can be. Outstanding

provision. Ofsted agree with us. The “And…?” Another thing. What do you

want us to do? I am looking at another affiliate union that we worked with

recently that wanted to do a course for under 26 for young members and that

was around the history of trade unions and the politics. We took a slight risk

with it, we were really nervous, will they engage in this? They absolutely loved

it. They loved the idea of understanding where the union had come from,

understanding why politics is important. So it is something we want to carry on.

Contact details. It should always be about the contact details. Follow me on

Twitter because I am an egomaniac, obviously. You can have a look at that. I

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