UNISON is encouraging branches to set up branch education teams, led by education co-ordinators, who act as a link between the branch and UNISON Learning Representatives. Branch education teams integrate the work of lifelong learning into the mainstream work of the branch.

Such work around learning is of considerable benefit to both UNISON members and employers:

• For UNISON, mainstreaming lifelong learning work brings a new way to improve the wages and conditions of its members through improving job satisfaction and career prospects.
• For both UNISON and employers, continued support for lifelong learning helps workers to continuously improve their skills in a rapidly changing world and deliver high quality levels of service.
• The OU/UNISON partnership makes a big contribution to pioneering a culture of learning at work, which helps bring about an immediate and valuable contribution to overall service level improvement in the public services.