HLN Manufacturing is a large engineering company specializing in the manufacture of parts for cars with a global workforce of approximately 50,000 employees. In its West Midlands site (which is the focus of this casestudy), the company has 323 employees, including 15 managers, 40 technical staff and 260 operatives. The number of employees on the site has shrunk from over 2000 in the early 1980s to its present size as a result of the introduction of computerized technology.
As part of their everyday work, machine operators (who make up the bulk of the learners that are the focus of this case-study), monitor and calibrate computerized machinery. Their work entails the use of “basic averages” to monitor output as well as the filling in of in production plans. Several machine operators remarked upon the increasing prevalence of target-setting and report writing, manifested in the introduction of “lost-time” analysis in the last two years in which forms have to be filled in on an hourly basis if production quotas have not been met. In the words of Bill Renfrew
“everything is around production now and you have to hit targets, without the targets you’re not making a profit so you know, its all around that now. And there are some visual sheets, big sheets that you have to write down so anybody can walk past and say why didn’t you hit the target… there is a lot more paper work now.”
Three Union Learning Representatives (ULRs) were instrumental in the establishment of a ‘Skills for Life’ course that ran from May 2005 to July 2005, consisting of 1 hour 30 minute sessions for 10 weeks. Bill Renfrew, who played a particularly instrumental role in the establishment of the course, found out about the Union Learning Fund (ULF) during the course of his involvement in the company union committee. He volunteered to train as a ULR and formally took on this role in January 2004.
In order to prepare for the establishment of a
course in the company, Bill Renfrew sent out a
questionnaire to all employees asking them
about the learning needs and preferences, 10%
of which were returned. The majority of those
who returned the questionnaire expressed a
preference to undertake a computer course;
“there were very few that wanted the basics in
literacy and numeracy”. Frustrated with his
efforts to gain funding from the Union
Learning Fund, Bill Renfrew and the other
ULRs decided to establish a course on the basis
of their own initiative. “I just knocked the
union on the head and I went my own way and
I got in touch with Walsall college, and that’s
how the course started off.”
Having entered into discussions with the local
college, the ULRs were advised that they
should set up a literacy course as a “first step”
to learning. Bill Renfrew and the other ULRs
subsequently encouraged employees to embark
on a literacy and numeracy course as a means
of paving the way to a computer course
through ascertaining their level in basic skills
and addressing any weaknesses that might
undermine their capacity to undertake an ICT
course. The ULRs encountered a frustrating 18
month delay in the establishment of the course
as a result of complications over funding which
meant that “expectations, enthusiasm of learners
was let down. We’ve had to build them up
again.”