Along with SWU, the General Federation of Trade Unions Educational Trust (GFTU) launched its brand new and largest selection of training courses yet at the 2024 Durham Miners’ Gala.
In attendance at the launch were members of the GFTU National Executive including SWU General Secretary John McGowan.
As an annual tradition, the GFTU holds a summer Executive meeting in Durham on the Friday before the Durham Miners Gala, which this year was on Saturday July 13th.
SWU General Secretary John McGowan said, “It was a special occasion as not only were we celebrating the GFTU’s 125th anniversary and the launch of the new Education Programme, but also an end to 14 years of Conservative-led government. A government that has entrenched high and deepening levels of poverty and inflicted unnecessary misery in one of the richest countries in the world with its austerity policies.”
The founding mission of the GFTU in 1899 was built around three pillars — education, solidarity and unity in action – and the continued excellence of its training is supported by these pillars. The GFTU’s head of Education, Campaigns and Organising Henry Fowler wrote that:
“This year, and even more so in next year’s programme, the balance between rich and connected residential education — which underpins our roles as union activists — and accessible online learning environments. Not creating a dichotomy or favouritism to one delivery style over the other, but providing blended learning which gives workers the chance to improve both theory and practice.
We have listened to our affiliates, education officers from across the movement, and also the feedback from the thousands of workplace representatives who interact with our work, and we have developed a programme which combines the skills our union members, representatives and branch officers need with theoretical discussion on what the point of trade unions are within our society. This includes the important internal assessment of the health of our movement and overcoming cultural and institutional challenges.”
Nearly all of the training offered in the GFTU Education Programme 2024-2025 is free for members of affiliated organisations such as SWU, and this includes hotel stays and meals for the residential courses.
The courses offer something for everyone who is already active or wants to become active in their trade union. They combine the best elements of union education, development of skills, peer-to-peer networking, and strategic discussion with a hybrid delivery. There is a broad range of topics to learn about including tackling inequality in the workplace, trade union and working class history, roots of racism, international solidarity, skill building, the use of Artificial Intelligence, employment law, and union strategy.
We are especially excited for the “Bargaining and Organising for Neurodiversity” course which will give practical advice, support, and strategies to help participants identify barriers that workplaces and working conditions present to neurodivergent workers and measures to remove or reduce them, identify workplace changes that will benefit neurodivergent workers and understand the role of the trade union representative in bargaining, campaigning, and representing for change. This builds upon the work of the Neurodiversity Pledge for Social Work Employers created and launched earlier this year by a group of neurodivergent social workers with the backing of the SWU Campaign Fund.
Please check the GFTU Educational Trust and SWU websites for the new courses and take advantage of this wonderful resource. All courses are free to SWU members, with the exception of the Activists’ Academy which is exclusively available to GFTU affiliated unions and their members and T.U.L.I.P.
You can also click here to download the Education Programme 2024-2025 brochure.