GFTU Education Programme 2025 - 2026 - SWU Social Workers Union

SWU members can access the GFTU Education Programme training courses free of charge*.

^{*With some exceptions including the Activists’ Academy and the Trade Union Leadership Innovation Programme (T.U.L.I.P), which offer a discounted rate for GFTU affiliates including SWU members.}

About GFTU Educational Trust Courses

Building on the GFTU’s growing success, as we continue to strengthen their educational offer for all, the GFTU Education Trust is proud to present our biggest education programme yet.

This year’s programme provides the foundations for further union renewal by combining the best of online learning, webinars and workshops with high-quality residential courses. This includes union education, development of skills, peer-to-peer networking, and strategic discussion.

We all learn differently and at the GFTU we pride ourselves on providing topical and thought-provoking learning opportunities, which are sometimes beyond the classroom, such as a conference or live performance. Knowledge is powerful and through learning, we develop understanding that stays with us, enabling us to be empowered to make a difference, to make more informed choices and support others to make a difference for themselves, their union, family and communities.

There is something for everyone who is already active or wants to become active in their trade union. Our aim is to inspire, educate and support trade union activists across the UK and beyond. You may be a new union member just finding out about how to get more involved in your union or a seasoned activist, a full-time union officer, or possibly something in between.

You can visit the GFTU Educational Trust website to book onto any course, click here for a PDF version of the full timetable of courses, or keep reading below.

You can also click here to view a full list of the GFTU Education Programme 2025-2026 training courses.

Trade Union and Working Class History (Online)

Following the success of last year’s programme of online courses, we will be running another trade union and working-class history series. This year’s course focuses specifically on the role played by women in trade union and working class history.

Price: Free

Dates: These online sessions will each last for 90 minutes and begin at 7pm. See the sessions below for dates:

25 September 2025 – Women in Radical Movements 1780-1850
30 October 2025 – New Unionism & Eleanor Marx
27 November 2025 – The Matchwomen’s Strike
29 January 2026 – Mary McArthur and the National Federation of Working Women
26 February 2026 – The 1918 Equal Pay Strike
26 March 2026 – The General Strike in its Aftermath
30 April 2026 – Day Nurseries & ‘British Restaurants’: Women Workers in WW2
28 May 2026 – Part-Time Work in the Post-War Years
25 June 2026 – The Ford Dagenham Strike
30 July 2026 – Trico: The Longest Equal Pay Strike

REGISTER HERE. Please note: You only need to sign up once to access all online sessions.

Watch previous Trade Union & Working Class seminars on the GFTU Educational Trust’s YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf157HLv68RCFUBDzzfTQc1K0UGoj8eyZ

Activists’ Academy

Residential Course: GFTU Quorn Grange

Alongside high-quality courses throughout the year, those who sign up to any of our Workplace Reps stage 1 courses will be enrolled in our Activists’ Academy.

Our academy will link all students with an experienced trade union mentor and be able to speak with other peers, through our peer-to-peer network.

This academy bridges the gap between the incredible learning experiences we all have on union education courses with the reality of implementing what we have learned when we get back to the workplace. We will undertake a full review of the academy and its impact before developing further.

To find out more about our activists’ academy please get in touch via campaigns@gftu.org.uk.

Health and Safety Stage 1 (5 days)

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £450 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 26 – 28 May 2026 (Follow-on sessions: 25 – 26 June 2026)

The essential first course for new union representatives – both shop stewards and safety representatives.

The course is split into a 3-day residential course followed by two further days delivered online.

We will explore the trade union approach to health and safety, how to spot and deal with safety hazards, the rights and responsibilities of union representatives, and the main aspects of health and safety legislation. We will also cover how to carry out safety inspections and participate in safety committees.

Deadline for May 2026 course: 12 May 2026

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline to apply for this course is 12th May 2026.

Health and Safety Stage 2 (5 days)

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £450 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Spring Term: 23 – 25 March 2026 (Follow-on sessions: 23 – 24 April 2026)
Summer Term: 8 – 10 June 2026 (Follow on sessions: 9 – 10 July 2026)

Building on the Stage 1 course, this course is suitable for new representatives wanting to develop their knowledge and skills and is also suitable as a refresher for more senior representatives.

The course is split into a 3-day residential course followed by two further days delivered online.

We will build knowledge of workplace safety legislation and how this can be used to not only ensure a safer workplace but also as a tool for building wider union organisation.

This course will be delivered by Angela Connell, who worked at Royal Mail Oldham delivery office from 1983 – 2015 and got involved with the CWU union, becoming the Delivery Substitute Representative, getting more involved in the union and carrying out various roles ranging from Health & Safety to Equality Officer. Having completed numerous courses at the CWU training centres, Elstead Hotel in Bournemouth and Alvescot Lodge Oxford, she found that she enjoyed completing the courses and decided to train to teach the courses and completed her 7307 & 7407 teaching certificates. Angela now tutors full time.

Deadline for March 2026 course: 9 March 2026

Deadline for June 2026 course: 25 May 2026

REGISTER HERE. Please see above for application deadlines.

Workplace Reps Stage 1 (5 Days)

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £450 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 1 – 3 June 2026 (Follow on sessions: 2 – 3 July 2026)

The essential first course for all new union activists. The course is split into a 3-day residential course followed by two further days delivered online.

We will be looking at the role of the rep, how to effectively represent members in a variety of situations, how to build the union in your workplace, and the importance of effective communication with members and your union.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline to apply for this course is 18th May 2026.

Workplace Reps Stage 2 (5 Days)

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £450 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Spring Term: 16 – 18 March 2026 (Follow on sessions: 16 – 17 April 2026)
Summer Term: 22 – 24 June 2026 (Follow-on sessions: 23 – 24 July 2026)

Building on the Stage 1 course, this course is suitable for new activists wanting to develop their skills and is also suitable as a refresher for more senior activists.

The course is split into a 3-day residential course followed by two further days delivered online.

We will develop representation skills as well as looking at how activists can campaign and deal with issues collectively. We will also cover rights at work, the importance of the employment contract and how to ensure the union stays on the front foot with employers.

Deadline for March 2026 course: 2 March 2026

Deadline for June 2026 course: 8 June 2026

REGISTER HERE. Please see above dates for application deadlines.

Political Economy International School (Online)

Price: Free

Location: Online

This online international seminar series is built upon the joint Lecture Series in Advanced Political Economy (SAPE) by SOAS University of London and The New School for Social Research in New York in 2021-23. With an additional partner The Center for Heterodox Economics (CHE) at the University of Tulsa, this seminar series will connect the academic discussions to the real-world power struggle and workers’ everyday lives.

We will talk about current affairs, trends in production and work, and their implications on trade unions and the working-class movement. Each week, we will invite leading experts on the subject and analyse what’s been going on by identifying key challenges.

Together with the audience, we want to think about how we can fight against the challenges and build a movement toward a more systematic change.

The Rise of AI and the Changes in Work and Employment (Online)

Dates:

Spring Term: 18 February 2026, 6-8pm

The Rise of AI and the Changes in Work and Employment will be delivered by Craig Gent, Jamie Woodcock and chaired by Chandni Dwarkasing.

Craig is a writer, researcher and editor. He brings eleven years’ experience of working at Novara Media, where he held a variety of senior operational and editorial roles – most recently as North of England Editor – and played a leading role in growing and formalising the organisation. He is also a member of the Code Committee of Impress, the independent monitor for the press, where he has contributed to a major review of the regulatory code and helped formulate guidance on the ethical use of AI in newsrooms. Craig is active within research on AI ethics and algorithmic power, and the author of a book on digital technology at work.

Jamie is a senior lecturer in digital economy at King’s College London. He is the author of books including Troublemaking (Verso, 2023), Employment (Routledge, 2023), The Fight Against Platform Capitalism (University of Westminster Press, 2021), The Gig Economy (Polity, 2019), Marx at the Arcade (Haymarket, 2019), and Working the Phones (Pluto, 2017).

His research is available to read online and has been featured widely in the media. It is inspired by workers’ inquiry and focuses on labour, work, the gig economy, platforms, resistance, organising, and videogames. He is on the editorial board of Notes from Below and Historical Materialism.

Chandni is a Lecturer in Economics at SOAS University of London. Her current research regards the intersection between working conditions, consumption patterns, and socio-ecological reproduction. In doing so, she draws on classical theories of production, the metabolic rift theory, and world-ecology. Her ongoing research on this topic aims to empirically investigate the relationship between individual carbon footprints, income, and working conditions.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 4th February January 2026.

Social Reproduction and Precarious and Unpaid Labour (Online)

Dates:

Spring Term: 4 March 2026, 6-8pm

Social Reproduction and Precarious and Unpaid Labour will be delivered by Luiza Nassif Pires and Anamary Maqueira Linares.

Luiza Nassif Pires is a research fellow working in the Gender Equality and the Economy program. Her research interests include gender and political economy, distributional aspects of gender discrimination, gender and racial aspects of development, and input-output methods. Her recent research relies on statistical equilibrium and game theory to formalize the impacts of gender and racial segregation in the labor movement with an application to the United States. Nassif Pires has also written on intersectional political economy with a focus on the impacts of social conflict for the labor theory of value and the long-run profit rate. She is also collaborating with Prof. Katherine Moos at University of Massachusetts, Amherst on a feminist input-output project.

Anamary Maqueira Linares is a feminist political economist working within the social reproduction umbrella in Global South contexts, particularly the Latin American region and Cuba. She received my PhD in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2024. She also received a MSc from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Quito, Ecuador, in Development Economics, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Havana (2009) where she worked as a young instructor for almost 5 years before spending 2.5 years in Quito, Ecuador.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 18th February 2026.

Climate and Ecological Crisis and the Role of Trade Unions (Online)

Dates:

Spring Term: 18 March 2026, 6-8pm

Climate and Ecological Crisis and the Role of Trade Unions will be delivered by Max Ajl and Ying Chen.

Max Ajl is a Senior Fellow at University of Ghent and an associated researcher at the Tunisian Observatory for Food Sovereignty and the Environment. He is an associate editor at Agrarian South and Journal of Labor and Society and has written for The Journal of Peasant Studies and the Review of African Political Economy. His book, A People’s Green New Deal, was published in 2021 with Pluto Press.

Ying Chen is Associate Professor of Economics at the New School and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her work explores the contradictions within capitalism and how they exhibit themselves. Topics she has studied include economic development, labor, and climate change, with a special focus on the global south. She has published in journals including Environment and Development Economics, Economics and Labor Relations Review, Journal of Labor and Society, Review of Radical Political Economics, International Review of Applied Economics, and so on. She was also consulted for the working of the UNCTAD Trade and Development Report 2021.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is March 4th 2026.

Train the Trainer

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £400 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

This was one of the most requested courses we had in 2024-2025. We have written three slightly different train the trainer courses to suit whoever would like to develop their educator skills, please see descriptions below and apply for the one that best suits your role.

Train the Trainer for Trade Union Staff

Dates:

Spring Term: 2 – 4 March 2026

Trade Union Staff
This course is aimed at Trade Union staff who have educational delivery as a part of their role, but not their whole role. They might be regional officers, organisers or other roles associated with supporting and delivering trade union education.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 16th February 2026.

Train the Trainer for Trade Union Educators

Dates:

Spring Term: 30 March – 1 April 2026

Trade Union Educators
This is for full time trade union educators. You might be working at as part of a college or be directly employed to deliver education in your unions. This will be your main role within the union movement.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 16th March 2026.

Train the Trainer for Trade Union Reps

Dates:

Spring Term: 20 -22 April 2026

Trade Union Reps
This course is aimed at trade union reps/stewards/branch/national activists. You will be interested in developing skills and delivering education in the future. You might also be looking to develop your skills further in delivering education and training in your ‘lay’ union role. This course is for trade union activists only.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 6th April 2026

Tackling Sexual Harassment (Online)

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £125 for non-affiliates.

Location: Online

Dates:

Spring Term: 10 March 2026

A one-day online course to help workplace representatives understand the nature of workplace sexual harassment, how to spot it and how to deal with it. It will explore
reasons why sexual harassment is often not reported and the steps that unions and employers should take to ensure that harassment is taken seriously.

This course is delivered in partnership with Morrish Solicitors, by Ranjit O’Mahony, who is a Senior Solicitor in the employment team. She has over 18 years’ experience advising individuals and trade unions in all manner of employment tribunal claims including discrimination, unfair dismissal, whistleblowing, protective awards and TUPE. She deals with complex employment tribunal claims from inception to completion. Ranjit also regularly delivers training to unions and associations, both online and in person.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 24th February 2026.

Empowering Workers: a Trade Union Certificate in Labour Law and the Labour Movement

Price: £2150

Location: Various

Dates:

19 March 2026
26 March 2026
6 – 7 July 2026
28 – 29 September 2026

Labour Law courses generally focus on imparting to students what the law is. This is, of course, useful for the union activist or community organiser by providing a set of potential weapons to add to her armoury when defending or seeking to advance the interests of her constituency. But labour law is only one element of that armoury which covers industrial, political, negotiating, campaigning, historicising, thinking, and organising modes. To decide strategy or tactics to achieve the goal of defending and advancing the interests of her constituents, it is not only necessary to have a grasp of these elements but also to understand their interaction, their limits and utility.

This course examines labour law and labour movements as well as their history in the multi-faceted context of the struggle between social justice and market forces, for the improvement of the lives of workers, and seeks to provide insight into how and why the law operates as it does.

This unique approach will equip students with the skills and knowledge they need to make a difference through empowering workers.

In addition to the attended sessions, there are some great online learning materials that are included in the course, which can be accessed anytime.

The price includes accommodation for the residential session at Quorn Grange Hotel, as well as food, and course materials for all of the sessions outlined overleaf.

19 March 2026

Venue: Birbeck School of Law

• Ways of organising, mobilising, and negotiating.
• Working rights in times of crisis: how can we respond?

26 March 2026

Venue: Birbeck School of Law

• Fairness, social justice and the law.
• Labour strategy and legal mobilisation. Labour, artificial intelligence and the law.

6 – 7 July 2026

Venue: Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London

• Unions and communities: linking struggles.
• Strike action, action short of strike action, balloting, campaigning, disobedience and protest.
• Boardrooms, works councils, votes at work and other forms of struggle

28 – 29 September 2026

Venue: GFTU Quorn Grange

• What labour law is and its historical, political and economic context.
• A short history of labour. The Declaration of Philadelphia and its significance.
• A look at recent attempts at legal reform, including a critical look at the Employment Rights Bill 2025.

Your Commitment:
• Attend the residential session at Quorn Grange Hotel in Leicestershire and the four in-person days at Birkbeck School of Law and Hamilton House, London.
• Commit to group online sessions with programme tutors.
• Complete the “self-study” elements appropriate to the course.
• Have the backing of your union in terms of course fees and time to complete the course.

Course Accreditation: This course is accredited by Birkbeck School of Law as a short course.

Course Tutors:

We have very deliberately established this as a blended programme with a mixture of residential and one-day in person sessions. Teaching is led by Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, Professor of Human Rights and Political Philosophy at Birkbeck School of Law, together with Lord John Hendy KC, former Thompsons CEO Geoff Shears, and Prof. Keith Ewing of the Institute of Employment Rights.

The programme is supplemented with contributions from several visiting speakers who have extensive experience of labour law, at senior levels in the trade union movement, in academia or as legal professionals.

Requirements for study:

This course is designed to be accessible to trade union activists and no prior qualifications are necessary to enrol. Whilst some experience of trade union negotiations and campaigning are assumed, there is no expectation of legal understanding or prior legal knowledge in order to undertake this course.

The course is aimed at senior activists and aspiring senior activists in the trade union movement and we hope will provide a firm foundation in the history and politics of labour law and the labour movement for future trade union leaders.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 5th March 2026.

Creative Activism

A key part of our mission is the development, promotion and utilisation of our culture across the movement. We are committed to safeguarding working class culture as a key part of our identity. That is why new to the 2025-2026 programme, we have developed the Creative Activism series, linking together our culture and activism.

Each session provides an opportunity to engage directly in creative activism and produce a piece of art with meaning, whilst learning new skills and approaches.

All materials are covered in the cost of the course and no prior experience is necessary.

These courses are half days delivered across venues in the UK with expert tutors and organisations.

Songs and Strikes

Price: £50 for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £100 for non-affiliates.

Location: Working Class Movement Library

Dates:

Spring Term: 21 March 2025, 12-4pm

Songs and Strikes will be delivered by Ben Lunn.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 5th March 2026.

Art and Agitation

Price: £50 for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £100 for non-affiliates.

Location: Marx Memorial Library

Dates:

Spring Term: 4 April 2025, 12-4pm

Art and Agitation will be delivered by Zita Holbourne, a multi-award-winning multidisciplinary artist and writer, trade union leader, community activist, human rights and equality campaigner. She has exhibited art and performed poetry on global platforms. She founded and was curator of the TUC Roots Culture Identity art exhibition and collective from 2013 to 2023. She is joint National Chair of Artists’ Union England and co-founder and National Chair of BARAC UK.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 21st March 2026.

Negotiation Skills

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £150 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Spring Term: 23 March 2026

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 9th March 2026.

Roots of Racism

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £300 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 5 – 6 May 2026

The course will be led by the prominent trade unionist Roger McKenzie. We will be looking at understanding the context of racism and where it comes from, the rise and mainstreaming of the far right, as well as challenging racism in the workplace and the community.

Roger McKenzie is a trade union activist with extensive experience of work on race equality issues and in particular in building Black self-organised structures within the trade union movement. Roger is former Assistant General Secretary of Unison, former Regional Secretary TUC, former Race Equality Officer TUC, former Race Equality Officer PCS, former Trade Union studies lecturer at Manchester College and Northeast London College.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 21st April 2026.

Bargaining, Organising & Campaigning Around AI and Data

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £300 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 5 – 6 May 2026

A two-day in person course for union reps and activists to build confidence on how AI is changing our workplaces and world, and how unions can utilise digital tech to build power. The course combines two key themes: organising on AI and organising with AI.

Organising on AI cuts through the hype to demystify AI and to critically understand the political context of technological change, and to dig into strategies and tools for collectively challenging and negotiating with the employer. Organising with AI introduces the technical background to AI and how unions are leveraging these tools to make our organisations more effective, including driving ballot turn out and member communications.

The course will use interactive exercises and applied learning so that reps and activists come away feeling confident and empowered to negotiate and bargain with the employer around these critically important issues, and to advocate for responsible and effective use of these tools within unions.

This course will be delivered by Mike Joslin and Adam Cantwell-Corn.

Mike is CEO and Co-Founder of Bombe, an AI data targeting and audience modelling platform. He has built start-ups, managed large teams, run some of the UKs most high-profile campaigns and worked for and advised dozens of leading figures on the centre-left of politics. His award-winning work at the National Education Union includes building the NEU Communicator, a pioneering data science and engagement-based communications platform.

Adam Cantwell-Corn has a focus on building collective power on technology. He is the Head of Campaigns and Policy at Connected by Data and works for TUC Tech Project. Adam has worked across the labour movement to build our strategies, policies, and organising capacities for worker power on AI.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 21st April 2026.

Bargaining and Organising for Neurodiversity Part 1

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £300 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 7 – 8 May 2026

In this two-day in person course for union reps and activists, we will learn the meaning of the term ‘neurodiversity’ and related terms such as neurodiverse, neurodivergent, neurotypical.

This course will enable participants to be confident in identifying and understanding six neurodivergent conditions, understand aspects of neurodiversity and neurodivergent experience, e.g., spectrum, social judgements and understand the social model of disability and apply it to neurodivergence.

This course 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 course will be delivered by Janine Booth, Britain’s leading trainer of trade unionists about neurodiversity. After over 25 years being actively involved in RMT, Janine now runs Red in the Spectrum, providing training and support. She is neurodivergent (autistic / ADHD / dyslexic-type specific learning difficulties), so brings lived experience of the issues that the training covers.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 23rd April 2026.

Bargaining and Organising for Neurodiversity Part 2

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £300 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 18 – 19 June 2026

This is a brand-new course in this year’s programme. This is aimed at those that have completed stage 1 from our last programme or those more experienced with bargaining and organising for neurodiversity.

This follow on course will deepen understanding, explore the change we need across our workplaces and inform discussions across our movement.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 4th June 2026.

Lessons in Organising – Workplace

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £400 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 11 – 13 May 2026

The ‘turn to organising’ in the trade union movement represents an important development that has helped support renewal across the labour movement.

However, commitments to develop an ‘organising agenda’ in trade unions can sometimes be more apparent than real. The term itself carries many different meanings and this can add to the confusion. In this course we draw on the book ‘Lessons in Organising’, and a wide range of other sources, to develop a deeper understanding of what organising is, and how organising approaches can help build union power.

There are two versions of the programme.

Lessons in Organising – Workplace is ideal for union workplace reps/stewards and branch officers and looks at combining local strategies with practical steps to develop effective organising across branches and workplaces.

This course will be delivered by Professor Howard Stevenson. He has extensive experience as as a researcher and activist and is one of the co-authors of ‘Lessons in Organising’.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is April 27th 2026.

Mental Health: A Trade Union Response (Online)

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £125 for non-affiliates.

Location: Online

Dates:

Summer Term: 13 May 2026

A record number of people are out of work due to long term sickness. We are facing a growing mental health crisis in our society. The role of our trade unions is to organise a response. Collectivising around mental health and understanding it is a health and safety issue is vital.

This course will look to equip trade union reps for union strategies to this growing crisis.

This one-day course is delivered online.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is April 29th 2026.

Political School

These new courses build on our successful Political Course in parliament from our 2024-2025 programme. Three connected sessions across the year, our political schools will look at the role of trade unions in influencing parliament, the political world around us and our economy.

Our politics and the economy school explores how politics is grounded in the economic base of our society and, in turn, impacts on that economic base. The course is co-taught by GFTU tutors and members of the economics department at SOAS, University of London. No prior study of economics is required for this course, which is accessible to all trade union activists.

Our politics and trade unions school draws all of this learning together to explore the role of trade unions in bringing political change. During the two days at Quorn, we will explore in more detail how mass engagement of membership, an understanding of economics and strategic use of parliament can combine to make trade unions powerful political players in bringing change. Attending the politics and parliament school and the politics and the economy school are not strict requirements of attending this course but having attended at least one of these will be advantageous.

Our politics and parliament school explores the relationship between the trade union movement and parliament, the nature of the state and how we can make use of parliament to help effect change. A morning of exploring politics and the state in the classroom is followed by an afternoon in Parliament, meeting with an MP to discuss parliamentary procedure and taking a tour of the House of Commons.

Politics and the Economy

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £150 for non-affiliates.

Location: SOAS University of London

Dates:

Spring Term: 25 February 2026

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 11th February 2026.

Politics and Trade Unions

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £300 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 6 – 7 July 2026

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 22nd June 2026.

Activists’ Corner (Online)

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £70 for non-affiliates (£10 a session).

Location: Online

We all like to learn and develop skills that can support our trade union activity. This series of sessions will focus on practical tools and skills that you can take back to your workplace.

Throughout Activists’ Corner sessions, you will be able to build your toolkit for building power at work and growing the strength of your union to make meaningful change.

This course is provided online and will be capped at 16 participants to ensure as much participation as possible. All pupils will be provided with a Google Classroom for access to resources, session recordings and materials used.

The sessions will be delivered by a mixture of activists and specialists in their subject and is a great chance to develop all your skills further.

Strike Threats (Online)

Dates:

Spring Term: 11 March, 7pm – 8pm

Strike Threats will be delivered by Robert Ovetz, Ph.D. A Lecturer in Sociology at UC Berkeley and Senior Lecturer in Political Science, who teaches Labor Relations in the Master of Public Administration program at San José State University. He focuses on global labor organising strategy and delivers training on preparing credible strike threats and fighting management rights clauses. Robert is the author of When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921 (Brill 2018/Haymarket Press 2019) and We the Elite: Why the U.S. Constitution Serves the Few (Pluto Press 2022), the editor of Workers’ Inquiry and Global Class Struggle: Strategies, Tactics, Objectives (Pluto Press, 2020), and co-editor of Real World Labor Volume 4 (Dollars & Sense 2024). He was an Associate Editor and contributor to The Routledge Handbook of the Gig Economy, edited by Immanuel Ness (Routledge, 2022). He writes about worker organizing for Dollars & Sense magazine and The Chief and is the Book Review Editor of the Journal of Labor and Society. He can be reached at, rfovetz@riseup.net and his writings can be found here.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 26th February 2026.

Mapping Your Workplace (Online)

Dates:

Summer Term: 14 May, 7pm – 8pm

Mapping Your Workplace will be delivered by Mel Jenner.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 26th March 2026.

Writing Good Workplace Bulletins (Online)

Dates:

Summer Term: 14 May, 7pm – 8pm

Writing Good Workplace Bulletins will be delivered by Lydia Hughes.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 30th April 2026.

Branch Officers’ Development Course

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £300 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 18 – 19 May 2026

A brand-new course on this year’s programme. Our branch officers’ development course is ideal for anyone who has a branch role across our movement. This course is aimed at supporting the development of those that coordinate stewards and workplace reps across an employer or geography.

You might have been in your role for a short time or a long time, this course will review different branch models across the movement and challenge us to discuss what makes an effective branch.

We will include as part of this course a clear understanding of coaching, mentoring, activist ID and how we develop workplace reps/stewards within our branch. We will also focus on strategies for building activism within our movement and exploring theories of trade union renewal.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 4th May 2026.

Strategy Series 2025-2026 (Online)

Price: Free

Location: Online

Strategy is not just a word. Strategy is about how we all within the trade union and wider labour movement build the power and capacity to improve workers lives. The employers have strategy, the managers have strategy, and it is vital that as a united labour movement we build our own. This series will include discussions from leading thinkers on; reviving the trade union movement, how we build union strategy, the role of women and feminist approaches to our unions, strategies for developing activists and the capacity to win campaigns big and small.

Rebuilding Working Class Representation (Online)

Dates:

Spring Term: 19 February 2026, 7-8pm

Rebuilding Working Class Representation will be delivered by Peter Mertens, a Belgian MP and leader of the Workers’ Party of Belgium. He has authored numerous books, on the Euro, trade unions, fascism, class and capitalism. His latest book “Mutiny” is to now be published in English.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 5th February 2026.

Lessons from the Largest Strike in History (Online)

Dates:

Spring Term: 19 March 2026, 7-8pm

Lessons from the Largest Strike in History will be delivered by Ashok Dhawale, President of the All India Kisan Sabha. A medical doctor by training, he began activism as a student. He was drawn into the Kisan movement by the legendary Godavari Parulekar.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 5th March 2026.

How do we Deal with Activist Burnout? (Online)

Dates:

Summer Term: 21 May 2026, 7-8pm

How do we Deal with Activist Burnout? will be delivered by Hannah Proctor, who holds a Wellcome Trust University Award at the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She is the author of two books: Psychologies in Revolution: Alexander Luria’s ‘Romantic Science’ and Soviet Social History (published as part of the Palgrave Macmillan series ‘Mental Health in Historical Perspective’ in 2020) and Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat (Verso, 2024). She is a member of the editorial collective of Radical Philosophy and contributing editor at Parapraxis.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The deadline for applications is 7th May 2026.

Empowering Workers: a Trade Union Certif

Political Economy for Beginners

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £400 for non-affiliates.

Location: Various

Dates:

Dire Straits: 3 June 2026
For a Change of Direction: 24 June 2026
Overcoming the Obstacles: 15 July 2026
The Politics of Change: 5 August 2026

This political economy for beginners course is for anyone interested in the reasons why things are so bad for the workers and what can be done about it.

If you have questions like:
• ‘why are we working more, yet our lives getting harder?’
• ‘what are the bosses doing? why are they paid so much?’,
• ‘why is there so much poverty and inequality?’
• ‘why is there no housing and decent jobs available?’
• ‘what can be done to challenge the status quo?’
…then this course is for you.

The course is designed to develop a class understanding by making complex information and political language accessible. This course will diagnose the problem, propose a solution and the tools to fight. It will form the basis for a progressive alternative economic, political and industrial strategy for Britain, so we can start tilting back the social balance in favour of labour not capital. It is to help you within your own union, at work, and wider political/community campaigning and organising.

Participants will be encouraged to draw on their experience as active TU members to build and widen knowledge.

Sessions include:

Dire Straits: 3 June 2026, Quorn Grange Hotel, all day

For a Change of Direction: 24 June 2026, Online, 5-7pm

Overcoming the Obstacles: 15 July 2026, Online, 5-7pm

The Politics of Change: 5 August 2026, Quorn Grange Hotel, all day

The course material will be based on the upcoming book ‘Out of the Ruins: Rebuilding the British Economy’ by Larry Elliott, Costas Lapavitsas, and Doug Nicholls. The price includes food, a copy of the book and course materials.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 20th May 2026.

Women in Leadership

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £400 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 15 – 17 June 2026

Following the huge popularity of this course, which ran once in Scotland and twice in England in 2025, our Women in Leadership course is back for 2025-26.

This course will cover:

What does leadership look like – labour movement history, community, family
Raising women’s voices in trade unions, in workplaces, and in elected politics
Organising on women’s Health and Safety in the workplace
Strength in networks and learning from each other, across the movement

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 1st June 2026.

Disability Equality for all Trade Unionists

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £400 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 29 – 30 June 2026

With huge changes to equality law, practice and workplace policy and changes in Government policy, the role of equality for all disabled people is vital.

The trade union movement must be at the forefront of these changes. Utilising a social model of disability, this course is ideal for workplace reps, branch officers and those involved in trades union councils that want to take forward the importance of disability equality for all.

This is a two-day course, delivered at the Workers’ Retreat, Quorn Grange Hotel in Loughborough.

This course will be delivered by Aisling Murray.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 15th June 2026.

GFTU Summer School

Price: Free for SWU members and GFTU affiliates. £425 for non-affiliates.

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 13 – 15 July 2026

This is our annual opportunity to take stock and think about the future of the Movement and where we go next. As we look to build on recent organising and campaigning successes, the course will help participants to think strategically and embrace new ideas.

Our Summer School provides the space and stimulus for a bolder, bigger and better union Movement. This course is aimed at experienced and newer trade union activists who want an opportunity to think outside the box with key leaders from across the movement.

This Summer School will be extra special as it will include the graduation of those that took part in the first ever pilot of the Activist Academy.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is June 29th 2026.

CPD Day for Professional Trade Union Tutors

Price: £150

Location: GFTU Quorn Grange

Dates:

Summer Term: 16 July 2026

We aim to bring together all professional trade union education tutors across the movement. You might deliver education and training as part of your full-time union staff role, or you might be a full-time trade union educator, working for a further education college. This continual professional development (CPD) day is for everyone to come together and discuss emerging technologies, curriculum and pedagogies for the best education and learning across our movement.

We recognise the incredible breadth of skills and experience across the union movement in the delivery of trade union education and believe providing the space for
educators to come together is vital to strengthening activism in our unions.

This is a one-day course, delivered at the Workers’ Retreat, Quorn Grange Hotel in Loughborough.

REGISTER HERE. Please note: The application deadline for this course is 2nd July 2026.

Strategy Series 2024-2025 (video recordings)

Together with the audience, we want to think about how we can fight against the challenges and build a movement toward a more systematic change.

You can view the GFTU’s YouTube playlist for this series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf157HLv68RCe1iDiOut8_27cyQQeCWM2

Social Justice Unionism Today – 16 September 2024

This public meeting took place on 16th September 2024 from 6-7:30pm at The Wesley in London, Euston. Speakers were:

Cecily Myart-Cruz, President of the United Teachers Los Angeles
Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union
Gawain Little, General Secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions

Join Cecily Myart-Cruz in conversation with Daniel Kebede and Gawain Little to learn about the experiences of UTLA and discuss what lessons we can draw here. This was Cecily’s only public event on her visit to the UK in 2024.

Cecily, the first Black woman president of the UTLA, has led the union during a period of renewed organising and campaigning. UTLA has secured major victories in this time:

21% pay rise for teachers
increased staffing in schools – including psychologists and social workers
housing support for low-income families
immigrant support in schools

These wins have come from a conscious strategy of building member power; forging alliances with students, parents, and community groups; and ‘bargaining for the common good’.

Social Justice Unionism Today – 16 September 2024

Reviving the Trade Union Movement, Defying Anti-UnionLaws, and Building Power – 17 September 2024

This online session was led by veteran union negotiator and labor lawyer with over 30 years experience negotiating labor agreements, Joe Burns. Joe is currently the General Counsel and Director of Collective Bargaining for the Association of Flight Attendants, CWA. He graduated from the New York University School of Law. Prior to law school he worked in a public sector hospital and was president of his AFSCME Local. He is the author of three books on labor: Class Struggle Unionism, Strike Back and Reviving the Strike.

Reviving the Trade Union Movement, Defying Anti-UnionLaws, and Building Power – 17 September 2024

The True Causes of Inflation: Weak Production and High Profits

By Costas Lapavitsas, James Meadway & Doug Nicholls

The “cost of living crisis” in the UK can be simply summed up: prices, especially of essentials, are too high, and wages, and other working-class incomes are too low. The basic steps to resolving the crisis are simple: prices, especially of essentials, must be brought down, and wages, salaries, benefits, and pensions must be increased.

This pamphlet published in September 2022 shows that the big businesses dominating production and distribution make huge profits out of high inflation, while working people lose out. It sets out factual evidence to illustrate that the source of record profits is the fall in real wages as inflation rises. A large part of the income of working people is transferred directly into the profits of big business.

Download a copy of this PDF here.

A Series of Seminars: Economic Policy & the Role of Trade Unions Recordings

Each of these seminars will consider critical, but overlooked, contemporary economic issues. These have to be discussed if fresh policies are to be developed with trade union participation to achieve a new deal for working people, our communities, and the environment.

The dominance of the finance sector and lack of investment in the productive economy have created a volatile and fragile environment. It is imperative to consider the latest thinking that could inject dynamism into productive activities, create good jobs, channel finance away from speculation, and achieve environmental targets.

Professor Costas Lapavitsas, Larry Elliott, Economics Editor Guardian, and Grace Blakely, Economics Editor, Tribune, will be among those contributing to this series.

It is hoped that the seminars would lead to new policy development for unions and community organisations.

Economic Seminar 1: Dealing with the Rising Cost of Living (published 16 June 2022)

This is the first in a series of online seminars on the British economy by the General Federation of Trade Unions and SOAS, University of London, in collaboration with the research network, EReNSEP. This seminar covers:

The causes of inflation in the Pandemic Crisis.
Government intervention in favour of big business.
Measures to protect the income and livelihood of working people.

The Bigger Picture: Autumn 2022 Series of Online Seminars

This is a series of GFTU online seminars that took place every third Thursday – starting on 15^th September 2022. More sessions are planned for the New Year.

Trade Unionists have to deal with the day to day and the here and now. But what happens at work is affected by wider, global forces also? The balance of those world forces, particularly the US and China is changing. The changes will have dramatic impact.

You can view the first of these free GFTU seminars designed to stimulate online discussion with international experts:

GFTU Seminar: China in the World Today (15 September 2022)

“The Chinese people have adopted a completely different developmental approach than the West. This route is constantly vilified and attacked and distorted in the media. So what is the truth, what are the policies that are driving China, is it a force for peace and progress and social and economic development or not? Is a country that has raised 850m people out of extreme poverty as bad as it has been depicted? Do the people have a say or is everything determined by the 96m Communist Party members? Why have 147 of the 193 nations who are members of the UN signed up to its vast belt and road initiative? Why has the US surrounded China with arsenals of weapons? How does China’s foreign policy compare with that of the US and Britain?

To consider these and many other issues surrounding China and our perceptions of it join Keith Bennett and Carlos Martinez (who are both expert writers and advisors on China), to take part in an informed discussion.”

The GFTU is pleased to facilitate informed debate and critical thinking about many subjects in its education programme and the views of speakers and participants do not necessarily reflect those of the GFTU.

GFTU Seminar: The Decline of US Imperialism (20 October 2022)

“The United States is marred by severe structural difficulties that are increasingly impairing its former ability to get its way and shape the world to suit its narrow interests. A combination of increasing indebtedness (already larger than its GDP), sustained neglect of its domestic infrastructure, poor economic performance and extraordinary levels of military spending are driving it to lose its world supremacy in almost every field.

This situation the US faces is compounded by the rise of China as part of an emerging multipolar geopolitics, but more acutely by the growing challenge to the petrodollar. All of this lies to an important degree at the base of both the string of defeats suffered by Latin America’s right-wing forces and the beginnings of the re-emergence of the Pink Tide with left wing electoral victories in Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Chile (possibly also in Colombia and Brazil), plus the survival and recovery of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. This context offers promising opportunities to progressive forces in Latin America.

This discussion will be facilitated by Dr Francisco Dominguez, Specialist in the political economy of contemporary Latin America at Middlesex University.”

The GFTU is pleased to facilitate informed debate and critical thinking about many subjects in its education programme and the views of speakers and participants do not necessarily reflect those of the GFTU.