In this article, the author talks about UK Government's informal learning consultation by considering the role of the workplace. As John Denham set out at the launch of this consultation process in January, trade unions have been at the heart of such learning throughout their history; campaigning for education for all and for public libraries, supporting night schools, mechanics' institutes, socialist sunday schools, helping to establish the Workers' Educational Association (WEA), and much more. Education was both the way out of poverty and the route to a richer cultural and social life where books, music and the arts were as relevant to working people as they were to the propertied classes. For this, the author states that the flourishing role informal learning plays in the trade union movement demonstrates that while workers need to be able to read and write, they must be able to dream too. Unions report that this "informal learning" often leads workers onto further courses too. They have the confidence to want to improve their basic skills or to get that vocational qualification that will open up new opportunities to them, or inspire them to go for that longed-for degree or diploma.