{"id":9819,"date":"2016-09-13T17:21:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T16:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9819"},"modified":"2016-09-14T10:05:59","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T09:05:59","slug":"cherry-on-the-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9819","title":{"rendered":"‘Cherry on the cake’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very own Paul McGovern took home the TUC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prestigious top Learning Rep award today (September 13) presented at conference by TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady.<\/p>\n

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UNITElive caught up with McGovern who said he was very proud of the union learning work he and his colleagues have done over the years.<\/p>\n

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McGovern said his path to becoming a learning rep started off when he was a shop steward.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe opportunity to become a learning rep presented itself and it dually gave me a chance to gain all the qualifications I never achieved,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI was quite happy to do that.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt then became my goal to pass on that education path to my colleagues in work,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McGovern added.<\/p>\n

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At the union learning centre in Blackpool Transport, McGovern noted that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve offered many different courses to many different students over the years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from literacy to numeracy to IT to sign language and diversity courses and much more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf we can get at least 10 people together interested in a course, we will basically offer any course you can think of,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re very proud of our learning centre and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve put a lot of work into it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and now that work has become fruitful. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re absolutely overjoyed by it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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What does McGovern enjoy most about being a learning rep? For him, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s those small moments that makes it all worth it.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor me personally the biggest reward is when for example a colleague comes up to me and says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Thank you so much, I was finally able to help my son or daughter with their homework last night.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 When people come out with statements like that \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a testament to what we do.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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While McGovern explained that he was very proud and grateful to have received the award, the work he does is it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own reward.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe award today encapsulates everything that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve worked for, going back to all those years ago when I first set out to gain my qualifications,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do things just to get a pat on the back, it is nice to get that recognition at the end of the day,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the cherry on the cake if you like.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"paul-mcgovern-len\"

Award-winning Unite rep Paul McGovern with Unite general secretary Len McCluskey<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very own Paul McGovern took home the TUC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prestigious top Learning Rep award today (September 13) presented at conference by TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady.   UNITElive caught up with McGovern who said he was very proud of the union learning work he and his colleagues have done over the years.   McGovern said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[34,585],"wps_subtitle":"Unite's Paul McGovern takes home top rep award","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9823,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9819\/revisions\/9823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}