MP celebrates Adult Learners Week in Stanton Hill • Fri, 15th May • 

Volunteers at Stanton Hill Community Shop held an event providing open access to learning, to encourage local people to get back on the learning track and celebrate Adult Learners’ Week (ALW). The organisation is run on a voluntary basis and supported by Community the Union.

During ALW, a new computer suite will be launched and local residents will be invited to do short IT taster courses. For those more interested in the outdoors, the Shop will promote its new project on gardening allotments and NVQ's in Horticulture.

The learning event is supported by unionlearn, the TUC's learning and skills organisation. Staff and local residents were also be able to seek help and advice about how they can benefit from improving their skills. Stanton Hill Community Shop is very popular in the area and sees over one hundred people dropping in each week to receive support and help on a wide range of issues.

The event is supported by unionlearn as part of Adult Learners' Week organised by NIACE, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education.

Mr Hoon said: 'I am pleased to see these improvements at the Community Shop in Stanton Hill. The shop is ideally placed in the heart of the community to provide these courses and give people the opportunity to learn and develop. I wish everyone all the success for the future and hope they achieve to the best of their potential.'

Mary Alys, unionlearn Regional Manager said: 'Adult Learners' Week and Learning at Work Day provide excellent opportunities to raise the profile of workplace learning and the great work that over 22,000 union learning reps are doing all over the country. The Stanton Hill Community Shop is providing a very valuable service to people in the area and giving them the opportunity to get back into learning'.

Christine Hardacre, Community Regional Director said: 'Community is delighted to receive an Adult Learners' Week grant from unionlearn. It will allow us to bring trade union education into the community by providing access to taster courses, engaging people in learning and encouraging community cohesion. This positively demonstrates that trade unions support members throughout their lives'.

University Of Nottingham Awards Presentation • Fri, 15th May • 

Nottingham University today became the third university in the UK to be given the prestigious Baby Friendly University Award in recognition of routinely high levels of breastfeeding teaching on its midwifery course.

Cabinet Minister and Nottinghamshire MP, Geoff Hoon, joined UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Director Sue Ashmore, to present the award during a ceremony at Nottingham University.

Geoff Hoon said: 'I am truly delighted to be able to present this UNICEF UK Baby Friendly award to Nottingham University in recognition of the high levels of breastfeeding training provided to all student midwives.

'This Government is fully supportive of the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative and has allocated £6 million to help PCTs implement the Baby Friendly Standards.

'Now midwives graduating from Nottingham will be putting the vital skills that they have learnt during training into practise, improving the breastfeeding care given to mothers and babies, and thereby making a real difference to the health of our nation in the long term.'

The Baby Friendly University Award tackles the problem of patchy and often insufficient training around breastfeeding, which has led to thousands of mothers being unable to breastfeed for as long as they would have wished.

Since the award was introduced in 2008 universities can apply for Baby Friendly Accreditation. Courses then need to demonstrate key areas of breastfeeding learning are in place for all student midwives, and following a rigorous external assessment by UNICEF UK professionals Baby Friendly Accreditation is awarded.

Sue Ashmore, Director, UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, said: 'For some years it has been apparent that many newly qualified midwives and health visitors do not have sufficient skills and knowledge to effectively support breastfeeding. Hospitals tell us they often have to provide 'top-up' training in order to bring new staff up to required standards.

'The Baby Friendly University Standards are the solution to this problem, and I am delighted that Nottingham has become the third university in the UK to gain this award. I know many people have put in a great deal of hard work to get to where we are today, and I congratulate them on this wonderful achievement.'