Centre Manager: Stuart Gray

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.

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.