The Union Learning Fund is set for a £3m funding boost next year.

Commenting on Prime Minister Gordon Brown's announcement that the Union Learning Fund, run by unionlearn, the TUC's learning and skills organisation, will be increased from £12.5 million to £15.5 million next year, unionlearn director Liz Smith said she was “thrilled”.

"Union learning projects all over the country, run by our 18,000 Union Learning Reps will be getting extra money to ensure that individuals who really need help back into education will be able to receive support and guidance to take those first steps back into learning. The Prime Minister has given a clear signal that union-led learning is central to the future not just of trade unions but of our country, calling union learning 'the biggest transformation of trades unions since the growth of the shop steward movement'."

The Prime Minister, speaking at the TUC Congress in Brighton earlier this week, also called upon all employers to sign up to the Skills Pledge, reiterating that he will consider a legal entitlement for employees who lack a vocational qualification to workplace training if sufficient progress is made over the next three years. He told Congress that the skills agenda was key to tackling globalisation.