The Workers’ College was formally launched on the 4th of July 1991. The College was established with the specific objective of providing education to workers, worker leaders and trade unions to empower them, their members, and organisations.
The idea behind establishing the Workers’ College was from the realization that there were very few workers education institutions that addressed the problems and realities of trade unions (Bofelo, Shah, Moodley, Cooper and Jones, 2013) which provided the specific type of education needed by these organisations and their shop stewards.
While unions at the time did have fairly vibrant education programmes themselves, but almost all education took place in the form of workshops conducted over a few days. There was no form of assessment to ensure that the workshops were in fact having the desired outcomes nor was there continuity between the workshops held.
This is not to say union education was ineffective as it played a key role in the growth of the labour movement but, as union organisations became increasingly formalized, some of the vibrancy attached to the uninhibited education in our organisations receded.
The Workers’ College was one of the first attempts to formalize worker education in the country. Fittingly, the College was located just down the road from where the historical 1973 strikes began. This spontaneous worker uprising spread around the country and gave rise to a new formation of unions that challenged the status quo both in the workplaces and communities.
From 1992, the Workers’ College started conducting a variety of education programmes for trade unionists (Bofelo et al. (2013). These were designed as one-year certificate courses requiring students to attend classes once a week as the students were working adults (Bofelo et al. (2013).
The Labour Studies Diploma (LSD) was the first diploma that was introduced by the college in 1992, and it was run for 48 weeks housed at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The College enrolled 48 students for the first diploma and it was supported by other short courses such as Trade women union, conferences, seminars, and outreach programmes which were run from Kwazulu-Natal to Cape Town.
In September 1992, the College expanded and had to relocate to its own campus at Bolton Hall in Magwaza Maphalala Street, former Gale Street, Durban where the first graduation ceremony took place. Early on, there arose a push towards the recognition of the working class and workers skills and knowledge.
The founding Director, June Rose Nala, herself a graduate of the “class of 1973”, with strong ties in the UK and to Ruskin College, helped pioneer this. Cooper, Ralphs, Deller, Harris, Jones, Moodley, Shah and wa Bofelo (2016: 83) write of this period, “the decision to seek formal accreditation for the courses arose from pressure from the various trade unions for formal recognition of their learning.
However, it must be noted that the Workers’ College’s education programmes were designed around particular content and outcomes to meet the needs and challenges facing such organisations which were not found in any of the higher institutions of education. Initially, an agreement around formal accreditation was reached between the Workers’ College and Ruskin College, Oxford, U.K., but because of the geographical distance between institutions, the arrangement became impractical.”
1997
The third and fourth diploma called Labour Economic Diploma (LED) and Political and Social Development Diploma (PSDD) was introduced in 1997 and 1998 respectively, and 23 and 19 students were enrolled for both diploma.
“In 1997, an arrangement was established with UKZN, giving effect to an accreditation link in the following way: The four one-year Workers’ College diplomas received UKZN Senate approval as alternative access qualifications into a degree programme:
2000
In 2000, a part-time five-year Bachelor of Social Science (B. Soc. Sci.) degree was designed, in collaboration with the Industrial & Working Life Project (IWLP), UKZN, for the Workers’ College diploma students. On successful completion of the Workers’ College diploma course, students qualified to enrol for this degree. The diploma served as an entry qualification should the student not have a matriculation (matric) qualification, alternatively, if the student did have matric, then the diploma served as a 16-credit UKZN module” (Bofelo et al., 2013). It was then in 2001 when the college enrolled the first 30 students to study IWLP at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
One of the key guiding principles of the College has always been the recognition of the diversity of workers irrespective of their political and trade union affiliation. In view of this, the College strives to be non-partisan and non-sectarian and therefore serves as a uniting institution that transcends ethnic, political, and ideological distinctions.
The progressive orientation of the trade unions governing the institution has meant the wisdom and approaches of broad workers education have increasingly been extended to community organisations, acting as a further bridge to working class unity. In 2000, the College Council took the bold step of amending the constitution to include community organisations in the scope of support of the institution.
This has not been limited to South Africa either. The Workers’ College main diploma programmes have been extended to other countries such as Namibia and Zimbabwe. The College has also played a valuable role in the shaping of workers’ education on the continent having run and coordinated programmes throughout the region.
Overtime, a very particular teaching and learning practice has emerged at the Workers’ College. This teaching and learning practice has sought to blend the traditions of political and critical education that emerged in South Africa through the liberation struggle, with practical problem solving based on peoples experiences and more formalized assessment techniques associated with mainstream education.
The content matter, not necessarily the interpretation thereof, was often overlapping with a great deal of the mainstream educational content however, it is in the College’s valuing and utilization of people’s experience of oppression and systemic violation as a lens to interpret the world that the fundamental differences lay. The education has always been very real and shaped by what is happening at the time. The Workers’ College was practicing real recognition of prior learning (RPL) from the very beginning and long before it became an overused acronym, but an under-realized reality in Today’ Skills development landscape.
“As much as there has been a tapping into various theories, from Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed to Marxian pedagogical traditions such as critical pedagogy and Giroux’s borderless theory, the Workers’ College’s educational practices have mainly been developed in the middle of the action, shaped by practice, experience and experiment, and informed by the ever-changing socio-economic and political landscape as well as the fluid and dynamic organisational environment within the labour movement and community organisations“ (reference).
Over the past twenty-five years the College has been led by four directors. The founding Director Miss June Rose Nala, a union veteran and anti-apartheid activist led the College in its initial year of existence, helping to establish the ethos of struggle education and the values that persist in the institution to this day. Mr Yunis Shaik guided the College for the next five years stabilizing the fledgling organisation and building support until 1997.
The third Director was Mr Kaisvel “Kessie” Moodley who steered the ship for more than 21 years after this and has made a huge contribution to the practice of emancipatory and radical workers’ education during this time. Under his guidance, the Workers’ College grew and established relationships leading to a full degree programme being run in collaboration with the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal long before any other such offering was available elsewhere in the country.
As research became an increasingly recognized as an important aspect of worker education, a sixth module was introduced to the Diplomas which enabled student to gather information, analysis, and report.
2013
Participatory Action Research Diploma (PARD) was introduced in 2013 and 18 students were enrolled.
Also in 2013 a similar arrangement to that at UKZN was forged with the Durban University of technology. Whilst a change of leadership has stalled the Certificate in community development which was planned to be moved into a full diploma it is expected this will be another feature of 2017.
2016
In 2016, Dr. Thulani John Mbuli took up the challenge of leadership and was poised to take the Workers’ College into another chapter of service to the working-class in KwaZulu-Natal, and South Africa as the College applied for the formal recognition of its status as an Institution of Higher Learning.
With this accreditation process, change was again at hand as the College saw an opportunity to engage the battle of ideas through formalising working-class knowledge and values into the curriculum of higher education and training.
2020
In 2020, Dominic Msiya was appointed as the fifth Director of Workers’ College South Africa. He continues in the quest of formalizing worker education by registering and developing new qualifications that blend the theory, practice, and lessons of the past 30 years, it is hoped that worker education can take its place at the highest levels of learning, opening a path of articulation from adult basic education, literacy, and numeracy training through to a PHD.
Under his guidance and leadership, the new Director has been committed to advancing the College’s vision by ensuring that it becomes the reservoir and beacon of quality and cutting-edge workers’ education in South Africa and around the world. His leadership style is also geared toward safeguarding the College’s ideological orientation (Marxism-Leninism) by broadening non-accredited programmes to ensure that the working class is endowed with analytical tools for fathoming society and its socioeconomic complexities, as well as the most effective measures to resolve them from a working-class perspective.
One of the strengths of the Workers’ College over the past 30 years has been the active governance structures. Organisations that make use of the College’s services become member unions and participate directly in the Council. This is the highest decision-making body of the College. Many unions and union members and officials have participated in the Council over the years, actively contributing to a vibrant and responsive democratic tradition that has shaped the operations of the College but more importantly, the identity and values of the institution.
The main operational oversight structure is the Board of Trustees. The Board plays an active role in College life and within this structure, many comrades have given selflessly of their time and knowledge to steering the ship.
Amongst these invaluable members, there have been several members that require special mention for their long-standing and dedicated service. Cde Richard Hlophe, the current Deputy Chairperson served in the capacity of Chairperson twice, Deputy Chairperson for three terms and has been a member since 1999. Cde Jabu Ngcobo led the College as Chairperson from 1996 to 2003.
Leela Reddy participated as Deputy Chairperson and was a member for over 13 years. Thulani Hlatshwayo has been a member for 9 years and Cynthia Joyce served as Chairperson for 6 years and participated for a total of 9 years. Cde Kessie Moodley served as Director for over two decades. These and many other comrades have over the years ensured that the College has been professionally run, and accountable to member and funder organisations alike.
Trade union and community activists have benefited from the College’s efforts to enhance their awareness of the political, social, and economic issues that confront them in the contemporary neoliberal climate, and to develop their skills so that they can take on the problems they face. The College’s efforts however have not been without constraints as the lack of resources and space to accommodate a significant number of trade unionists and community activists has been a major stumbling block that the institution has faced throughout its history and, continues to restrict its ability to diversify its programmes.
Navigating the terrain of balancing furthering the ideological convictions of the College in a neoliberal climate where the College relies on funding has been most challenging. History has taught us that although partnerships are an invaluable strategic assistance in achieving the recognition that worker education deserves, it is also important to have autonomy and self-reliance in matters of design and accreditation. It is on this basis that partnerships can in fact be strengthened to a form of mutual peer support.
The Workers’ College has had different areas of focus at different points in time in the past. Outreach programmes in other areas of Kwa Zulu-Natal, evening seminars and political economy discussion groups, short course education on fundamentals and worker focused research projects were all a feature of the institution in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
These varied activities were eventually set aside to focus on the main educational programmes. As we move into this new chapter of the College, it is the hope to re-establish a broad range of offerings and formats as possible in order to reach and make access possible to as many as possible.
The Workers’ College has over the past 30 years facilitated the education of thousands of workers in South Africa and further afield. Workers have received education and the beginning of the valuing and recognition of worker knowledge has begun.
The College continues to pride itself in its journey that begun 30 years ago, shepherded by the multitude of union and community leaders, learners, activists, academics, practitioners, researchers, and supporters in government, in unions and internationally. All have played a valuable part in this story and it is upon these great efforts that we excitedly look towards the story yet to be told.
The Workers College has an education unit with a head of education who is responsible for the development and review of the curriculum and to ensure quality assurance; and facilitators responsible for materials
development, instruction and assessment.
The idea behind establishing the Workers College was from the realization that there were not many worker education institutions that addressed the problems and realities of trade unions and and the specific type of education needed by these organisations and the shop stewards from them. Unions themselves at the time did have fairly vibrant education programmes themselves but almost all education took place in the form of workshops conducted over a few days.