Holme House Learning Centre
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We began to promote the learning agenda within the prison and produced a learning needs survey for the workplace. This resulted in 184 staff expressing an interest in learning. On the 20th July 2006 we organised a Learning at Work Day and opened the Union Learning Centre’s doors to the staff at Holme House. There were in excess of 140 staff of different grades who took part in learning on the day. Various taster courses and workshops were on offer including British Sign Language, Digital Photography, Literacy and Numeracy Target Skills, Spanish, Indian Head Massage and ICT. We officially opened the Union Learning Centre in September 2006 offering ICT, Spanish, Skills for Life, Guitar, Holistic Therapy, BSL, Deaf Awareness and many more courses for all the staff at Holme House. To date, we have trained a further 11 Union Learning Representatives from various unions (including PCS, UCU, POA, Unison, Amicus) for both HMP Holme House and other workplaces in the local community. Over 300 members of staff have accessed the Union Learning Centre since April 2006 and over 70 of those staff have engaged in more than 6 hours each of skills development. 68 learners have engaged in Skills for Life courses and 23 of those have completed the National Tests in numeracy at level 2. Literacy level 2 is still ongoing. 124 members of staff have been referred to other learning opportunities including full level 2 and 3 courses. We negotiated free of charge an NCFE Equality and Diversity course (level 2) for staff and free ICT courses (basic and intermediate). All the courses that we have enrolled staff in have been of huge benefit to the Prison Service and the personal lives of staff at HMP Holme House. On the 29th January 2007 the prison hosted a ‘Discovery Day’ where local members of the BME community were invited into the prison with a view to offering them training placements for a period of 12 weeks. We worked with a small team of people on this project, helping to design information packs, job descriptions and posters. We also engaged with Stockton Adult Education College to develop a training package for the prison which offered Skills for Life, interview techniques, and report writing courses. On the 7th February 2007 we organised a presentation of certificates to the staff who had successfully passed their chosen course. The presentation was made by Governor Matt Spencer with the TUC Unionlearn in attendance. We have been instrumental along with TUC Unionlearn in spreading the learning agenda throughout the region. The Education Learning and Skills Forum was held for the first time in a prison (HMP Holme House), the event was a huge success and promoted prisons and their staff in a positive manner within the wider community. Part of our work is to develop contact and learning opportunities for all prisons within travelling distance to the centre. We have visited HMP Frankland, HMP Durham, HMP Kirklevington and HMP LowNewton and developed a network of Union Learning Representatives who actively promote Holme House POA Union Learning Centre to their staff and families. We have invested a lot of time in the career progression for OSG at Holme House. We have wrote and delivered a training package specifically for OSG’s. We have also supported OSG’s and administration grades in obtaining a level 1 and/or 2 qualification in numeracy which has given them the confidence to sit the post-test for the Prison Officer conversion. Recently, we have secured two and a half hours every month for staff training in the Union Learning Centre. This is part of Holme House’s training day. We offer staff the opportunity to train in the following; Health and Safety, DDA, ICT and Dyslexia awareness. All the targets that were set by the TUC and POA have been met and a second bid is being submitted to secure funding for the next 12 months. Further funding has been secured for us to pursue information, advice and guidance to Matrix standard for the centre. The courses currently available are Literacy, Basic I.T, I.T. Intermediate, Spanish and Guitar. Courses available in March and April are Deaf Awareness, B.S.L, Digital Photography and counselling. |
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