Consulting the members

You must find out just how widespread the need is for basic skills training in your union. This may be done in a number of ways:

• By surveying all or part of the membership.
• By setting up focus groups which are representative of the membership.
• By surveying needs through shop stewards.

In any survey you conduct, you must ensure confidentiality. The members must feel they can talk to the union about basic skills without fear of exposure or reprisal. Basic skills and literacy are very personal issues. Information that gets back to the employer could jeopardize a member's job.

The membership survey

• To set up the survey, work through your education or training committee, if one already exists.
• Get help from the national or district office of your union, or a local college or university instructor familiar with survey techniques. Seek their advice on how to do surveys. Make the survey as easy to answer as possible.
• Make your survey short, and the language clear. Rely mainly on multiple choice techniques. (See Sample Members' Survey at the end of this section.)
• If necessary, translate your survey into the languages spoken by your membership.

Focus groups

A focus group is set up by gathering together a representative group of members.

• Assign someone from your committee to facilitate the discussion and someone else to record the meeting (if participants agree), or to take notes and type them.
• Discuss what life is like at work: What are the needs of the membership? What could training do to help?
• If needed, set up focus groups in languages other than English or French.

Shop steward survey

If organizing focus groups is too difficult, get your shop stewards to survey the membership in their department or area and answer these questions:

• What is the education level of members in each department?
• How many have a high school completion level of reading, writing and math skills?
• How many workers have difficulty with English or French because it is not their first language?
• What are the working conditions, such as shift rotation and work locations?
• What kind of program, delivery method and scheduling would best encourage the widest participation?

Naming the program

An important issue is to find a name for the program. Some people may be intimidated by having the word "literacy" in the name. So why not choose something catchy. Acronyms, or words whose letters stand for others words, such as BEST (Basic Education for Skill sTraining) are a Canadian tradition. We also have LEAP (Learning and Education Assisted by Peers) and JUMP (Joint Union Management Program). The only limit is your imagination.