Dave Hurd, a Unite Union Learning Rep (ULR) at First Bus, Bradford, has used his role to develop the skills of his colleagues, as well as creating a better experience for customers.

Through his role as a bus driver, Dave noticed that it was occasionally challenging for deaf and silent customers to communicate for even the simplest of enquiries regarding fares and destinations.

When he took on the role of Union Learning Rep at the bus depot where he worked, Dave circulated a learning survey among his colleagues and British Sign Language (BSL) was one of the most frequently requested skills to learn.

Dave was keen to support his colleagues in developing their skills and made enquiries regarding BSL courses within our region. However, he was unable to find a suitable course for his colleagues’ requirements until recently.

Christine Harvey from the Bradford Deaf Community Association (BDCA) was extremely enthusiastic about Dave’s ideas and thought it would be really beneficial to the deaf and silent community, and First Bus drivers and customer service staff, if they were able to communicate using BSL.

Christine was more than happy to work with Dave in putting together a workshop to promote the invisible disability of being deaf and silent. Dave contacted Colin Brushwood, Operations Managers at First Bus Bradford, Dave Pugh, Project Worker, and Taj Salam, Unite branch president to let them know about the exciting news regarding the BSL communication workshop plans.

Christine worked with Dave to put together the content and format of the workshops and, following advertising through posters, flyers and word of mouth, 72 of Dave’s colleagues enrolled.

The workshops started on 19 September 2017 and, to date, 32 of Dave’s colleagues have participated. Feedback from the workshops has been excellent and students have interacted positively through the process.

The workshops are due to continue at Bradford as there are still 40 people to attend in the coming months. Following the success of the programme so far, a press release was published in October. The workshops will be delivered through the learning centres by the union learning representatives with participants taking part voluntarily during their own time.

First Bus Bradford and Dave’s Unite branch have pledged £50.00 each to BDCA to thank them for their assistance in putting the workshops together.

Dave said:

This is a fantastic achievement for myself, First Bus and Unite. It puts the Bradford Learning Centre on the map.”

This year, more than 70 people will study BSL at the Bradford Learning Centre, and deaf and silent people within our community will benefit from this. I’m excited about the prospect of this being rolled out to a wider audience as it will benefit thousands of our customers.”

The success of this project is down to the Lifelong Learning partnership between Unite the union and First Bus Bradford”