Prospect (trade union)
 | |
| Full name | Prospect |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1 November 2001 |
| Members | 120,000 |
| Affiliation | TUC, ICTU, STUC, PSI, ETF, ITF, IFATSEA, CSEU |
| Key people |
Denise McGuire, President Mike Clancy, General Secretary |
| Office location | New Prospect House, Leake Street, London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Website |
www |
Prospect is a United Kingdom trade union which represents engineers, managers, scientists and other specialists in both the public and private sectors.
History
The union was formed on 1 November 2001 by the merger of the Institution of Professionals Managers and Specialists (IPMS) and the Engineers and Managers Association (EMA). In 2009, Prospect endorsed a transfer of engagements from the Connect union, the union for managers in the communications sector, which became a part of Prospect on 1 January 2010.[1] In 2012, the union absorbed the Aspect trade union.[2] It was announced in August 2016 that members of the broadcasting union BECTU. had voted in favour of a merger with Prospect [3] The union is not affiliated to any political party.[4]
Membership
As of 2013 it has around 120,000 members, employed across the areas of agriculture, defence, energy, environment, meteorology, heritage, shipbuilding, telecoms and transport. It is now the largest union representing professional engineers in the UK.
Governance
The president is Denise McGuire and its General Secretary since 2013 is Mike Clancy. Its principal policy-making body is the biennial National Delegate Conference. Policies determined by this conference are enacted by a National Executive Committee of 23 members, also elected biennially.
Organisation
It is organised in around 300 branches across its main sectors of employment, each branch generally corresponding to a separate employer. These include both single-site and geographically-spread groups.
It covers staff across the UK from its regional offices in Edinburgh, Douglas, Liverpool, Lutterworth, Cardiff, Bristol, Chertsey and London.
It is headquartered next to London Waterloo station in the London Borough of Lambeth.
Skills
With a largely professional membership, the union has placed a strong emphasis on developing skills and opportunities for career progression. To this end it launched a standalone website called Careersmart in 2014 which provides information and podcasts on a range of subjects from career appraisals and CV writing to mentoring and pensions. Careersmart followed the 2013 launch of Prospect’s Apprenticeship App for mobile devices which saw 12,000 downloads in the first year.[5] In 2015 Prospect launched a Gatsby Charitable Foundation-funded project, known as RegTech, to register workplace technicians.[6][7]
General Secretaries
- 2001: Paul Noon and Tony Cooper
- 2002: Paul Noon
- 2013: Mike Clancy
References
- ↑ Neela Bettridge and Philip Whiteley, New Normal, Radical Shift, p.51
- ↑ "Aspect education union votes to transfer into Prospect", Prospect, 7 December 2011
- ↑ "Prospect and BECTU unions hail merger vote" Prospect, 30 Aug 2016
- ↑ "About us", Prospect, 29 November 2013
- ↑ Prospect to launch new careers and skills website for professionals Prospect, 13 May 2014
- ↑ Careersmart: RegTech - Raising the status of Technicians
- ↑ The benefits of mentoring in workplace and beyond Unionlearn, 25 March 2015