Everyday Skills for Lifelong Learning

Each year, Scottish Union Learning hosts an Everyday Skills event, bringing together Learning Reps and officers from across the Scottish trade union movement.

The focus for this event is integrating learning into workplaces and daily life, supporting workers in a wide variety of sectors to develop core skills which support them in their jobs and wider lives.

The 2020 edition of this event, 'Everyday Skills: Building Effective Pathways to Learning', was attended by EIS's Aberdeenshire Learning Rep Rob MacKay, and SUL Project Worker Pauline McColgan. The programme included presentations and workshops from the Scottish Book Trust, Dyslexia Scotland, and Glasgow Life.

Rob MacKay attended the Scottish Book Trust workshop on reading and positive mental health, and reflected:

"The presenters led an interactive workshop highlighting the benefits of reading for people of all ages. The statistics show that readers suffer less stress than television watchers.

Ways of promoting reading and sharing opinions about books in the workplace were discussed and shared. Employers benefit from employees who read because they are less stressed, more connected with their colleagues and have a more positive outlook on life and work in general."

Pauline attended the Dyslexia Scotland workshop on supporting dyslexia in the workplace. Pauline's key learning points were:

• The experience of dyslexia is unique to each individual, and so support equally should be tailored to the individual. Working alongside the person ensures they have a say in support that work for them.
• People with dyslexia may have more than one neurodivergent label or may not know at all. Dyslexia Scotland promotes an understanding of dyslexia for everyone, to recognise when individuals may need to give or receive support.
• Dyslexics have strengths as well as challenges, and Dyslexia Scotland offers ways of working to support promoting the strengths of individuals.

For more information on SUL’s work on this topic see the Everyday Skills section of their website, or follow #SULES20 on twitter.