Young Members’ training leads to Skillseekers recruitment
by Michele Coulter, Young Members’ Officer, Ayrshire
LG Branch
Last year, as the Young Members Officer for South Ayrshire
LG Branch, I attended the Scottish young members’ training
weekend.
During the weekend one of the activities was about planning
for what we could do within our branches to encourage young
people to join UNISON and become active.
My group decided that a good way to go about this was to
become involved in the induction process for Skillseekers.
Back in the branch I began putting my plan into action.
Firstly, by getting agreement from my branch that they would
cover the £10 per year membership for the Skillseekers and
would provide some freebies for their induction course.
After contacting the trainers and getting agreement to
attend the next Skillseeker induction, myself and the previous
young members’ officer, Colin Reid, armed ourselves with
application forms and went to speak about what a union was,
what we do, our own experiences as young members and how
important it was as a young person to be a union member.
Most of the Skillseekers were 16 or 17 years old and didn’t
know much at all about unions and initially it was really
difficult to get their interest but I think the fact that
we were almost their age helped greatly and showed that
there is a young face of UNISON and a place in the union
for young people.
At the session we very successfully recruited 17 new young
members, one of whom looks like becoming active. The next
induction is in March and I’ll be taking our new activist
along with me so she can be more involved and so the new
Skillseekers can meet someone doing the same training as
them.
It really does go to show that like-for-like recruiting
works and that with the support of your Branch young members’
officers can make a huge difference.
This year’s Scottish Young Members’ training weekend is
on 27-29 March. For details contact j.stewart@unison.co.uk
The national young members’ weekend this year is 8-10 May
in Manchester.
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