Julienne Nicklin says: “Making learning fun is essential in attracting members back into the learning zone and I feel my efforts have been richly rewarded with excellent results. Courses on understanding the digital agenda, the Six Books Challenge and distance learning courses on mental health awareness, maths, IT and English and many more have engaged a whole new generation. Using merchandise, colourful displays, even quizzes have given campaign days an extra ‘oomph’ and workplaces have a huge buzz. I’m proud of all that has been achieved together in the last year and I’m so pleased for everyone involved that we’ve received national recognition.”

Shopworkers’ trade union leader John Hannett – Usdaw General Secretary says: “This week is the TUC’s ‘heart unions’ week’ where we celebrate the work of trade unions and most importantly the dedication of reps like Julienne. Members can expect much more from their union than negotiating terms and conditions of employment. We have reps like Julienne across the country in many workplaces who are working hard on a voluntary basis to help members to access learning and in many cases return to education for the first time since leaving school. These schemes are run in partnership with employers and are only successful because of reps like Julienne.”

Liam Bucknell  - Tesco Stoke store manager says: “We are all immensely proud of Julienne’s achievement in her role as a Learning Rep. She has done a fantastic job of promoting this and engaging the store team in the opportunities that are available. This recognition is completely down to her own determination and self-motivation and it is clear she has worked incredibly hard at making a real difference for all our colleagues - brilliant!!”

Notes for editors:

Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fourth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 440,000 members. Membership has increased by more than 17% in the last five years and by nearly a third in the last decade. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the Union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.

♥unions week - 8‑14 Feb 2016: The heartunions week of action celebrates the great work done by union reps and members in our workplaces and in society. We're proud of our unions and reject the government's attempts to damage them with the trade union bill. http://heartunions.org/

For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion