Unions Rock!

Background

SkillCity is an interactive careers event aimed at young people in the Highlands & Islands aged 14 to 17 years. The event is organised by Highlands & Islands Enterprise network through Careers Scotland over three days and attracts in the region of 3,500 young people.

The event provides employers, career organisations, further and higher education institutes, sector skills councils etc the opportunity to meet young people from schools across the Highlands & Islands and showcase their organisation/professions through interactive displays/activities. What makes this event an annual success with the young people and the organisations participating is the strong emphasis on interactivity and providing the visiting young people with the opportunity to 'Give it a Go.'

The event also provides an opportunity to meet the workforce of the future and there is clearly a role for the trade union movement at this event to promote trade unions and provide the visiting young people with information about the benefits of trade union membership.

The STUC attended the event in 2005 and engaged young people by asking them to complete a questionnaire about workers' rights. Over 200 young people completed the questionnaire. It was obvious from speaking to the young people that very few had a clear idea what trade unions do, and they either didn't know or their perceptions of trade unions were negative. (For example, one young person commented trade unions make you strike when you don't want to!) It was also clear that most of the other exhibitors had interesting, sometimes fun, interactive displays/activities which attracted young people. If the STUC wanted young people to stop to talk about unions at future events, we needed to find an interactive activity that would be of interest and fun to young people.

Unions Rock! - SkillCity Highland 2006

SkillCity Highland 2006 took place on Tuesday 12th to Thursday 14th September 2006 at the Highland Football Academy and Ross County Football Club in Dingwall.

The STUC and Unison, with Dave Martin, a Musician who is very successful in engaging with young people through music and technology, gave young people information about trade unions. The young people subsequently fitted the information to music. This involved the young people recording their voices, raps and other sounds. Dave then worked with them to help choose music and the right mix to go with their voices. Using all this information, Dave has edited and mixed it to produce the Unions Rock! CD.

Seventy-six young people contributed one way or another (including the sound of a STUC Skills & Lifelong Learning Team jelly ball being squished!) to make the Unions Rock! CD. Each one of contributors received a copy of the CD. If each of these 76 young people let just five of their friends hear the CD, including themselves, then over 400 young people will learn about trade unions - just from listening to music!

Conclusion

This was an excellent way to engage young people as it made learning about trade unions fun, interesting and relative. The one problem we encountered was that we could not accommodate all the young people who wanted to get involved in the production of Unions Rock as we simply could not cope with the demand! Dave Martin relates fantastically well to young people and a big thank you is due to Dave for making the young peoples' involvement in this learning event a very positive experience. The young people not only learned about trade unions but also about the music and technology involved in this type of production.

For further information on Unions Rock!, contact:
Pam Urquhart
Development Officer - Highlands & Islands
STUC Skills & Lifelong Learning Team
Unison Building
53 Shore Street
Inverness, IV1 1NF
Tel/Fax: 01463 248 905
or
send an Email

Alternatively, visit the SkillCity website for more information on future SkillCity events.