Trade unions have a long tradition of learning. Ruskin, the Plebs’ League, the residential centres run by unions themselves and trade union courses in FE Colleges once flourished, but over the decades have now largely gone. More recently, the Blair government introduced the highly successful  Union Learning Fund (ULF)  which ran from 1999 until it was axed by Gavin Williamson in 2019. At an average cost of £10 million per year it helped unions bring learning to over two milli

This article was written for the Association of NUPE Former Staff and appeared in their Summer 2025 newsletter. I felt genuinely honoured...

Who Gets Remembered? At a recent workshop organised by the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) and led by brilliant trade union...

It's Co-operative fortnight (23 June - 6 July) and the UN's International Year of Cooperatives, so it's got me thinking about the...

I first heard Alice Foley's name in Jonathan Rose's incredible book, 'The Intellectual Lives of the British Working Class' where he...

As reported by the WEA earlier this year, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, indicated that the Adult Skills Budget was to be cut by 6% and...

This blog first appeared on the WEA's site in May 2025 ( https://www.wea.org.uk/unions-adult-education )   In 2020, the Union Learning...