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Union Learning Representatives—a new source of professional support for Scottish teachers

Union Learning Representatives (ULRs) are a relatively recent phenomenon and are a new category of lay representation within the workplace in the United Kingdom. They are part of the present New Labour administration’s drive to expand and improve lifelong learning and continuous professional development and create the new ‘learning society’. ULRs have become significant in the Scottish educational system, particularly in response to the McCrone Report, which dealt with the future of continuous professional development (CPD) of Scottish teachers and made significant recommendations in this area. To this end, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), which represents the overwhelming majority of teachers in Scotland, took up the challenge and launched a Learning Representatives scheme with the expressed desire that these representatives work to advise, broker and facilitate improved CPD opportunities for their colleagues. The aim of our article is twofold. Firstly, to outline the EIS Learning Representatives scheme in some detail, and secondly, to outline how it is progressing from the perspective of the representatives themselves. Our hope is that this article will help stimulate a debate in Europe amongst academics, politicians and practitioners to the extent that the concept of ULRs is adopted beyond the shores of the UK.