Short Courses – Worker's College

Trade Union-Initiated or Fit-for-Purpose Short Programmes

The College designs and offers various range of short union-initiated and fit-for-purpose programmes. These are usually worker-informed and need-based programmes aiming at providing skills that allow trade unions representatives and community leaders to perform effectively their duties as agents of social change. These programmes are non-accredited courses and are outlined as follows:

Basic, intermediate, and advanced shop stewards’ capacitation Programme.

The trade union capacitation programme is structure in three articulated levels: the basic shop steward capacitation programme, the intermediate shop steward capacitation programme, and the advanced shop steward capacitation programme.

Shop Stewards Capacitation: Intermediate Level

The intermediate shop steward capacitation level builds on the basic level and extend its scope to the political-economy- and labour relations nexus. It critically reflects on the role, responsibilities, power relationship between the parties in Industrial Relations; defending and extending workers’ rights; case handling; basic economics for trade unions; preparing for a workers’ demands for purposes of collective bargaining; working class ideology; and introduction to legal reasoning and South African legal framework. The training may be structured in sessions of either three days or five days.

Shop Stewards Capacitation: Advanced Level

The advance shop stewards’ capacitation builds on the basic and intermediate levels and extend its scope to contemporary issues that affects the world of work including the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), the COVID-19 pandemic and other occupational health and diseases with their implications for industrial relations and collective bargaining in particular. Participants are requested to draw from and apply their knowledge of the various interdisciplinary subjects including politics, economics and legal to address the challenges facing workers in the world of work. One of the core foci of this level is an emphasis on selected but concrete case studies and legal precedents to enrich knowledge and strengthen the capacity or workers leaders on issues of workplace law and its applications. The training may be structured in sessions of three days or five days.

Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Legislation in the Workplace

The Occupation Health and Safety (OHS) programme aims at building participants knowledge and capacity to improve their awareness to understand, interpret, and apply safety, health, and environmental legislations in their workplace.

Ultimately this will allow them to identify and assess potential hazards and risks while contributing to create safer and healthier workplaces. The course will also build participants’ knowledge and capacity to be able to ensure consistent employers’ compliance with OHS regulation and adherence of fellow workers to health and safety issues in the workplace.

It is structured in sessions of three or five days, but can be designed as one day workshop. Accreditation framework and status: Non accredited skills-based programmes.

Research Process, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and Policy Development for Trade Union

Research Process, M&E, and Policy Development are critical activities for every organisation. This is especially important for trade unions organisation who have rely on research output, and to conduct research to inform their actions.

They also have to use research tools to monitor and evaluation their activities while engaging in a process of policy conceptualisation and development. The aim of this training programme is to strengthen the capacity of trade unionists, workers’ leaders and community activists to allow them to effectively read, understand, and conduct their own research.

The programme also introduces participants to the use of research tools for monitoring, evaluation, and improving of their ability to engage research output and policy documents. The course is designed as a 5 days training.

Collective Leadership

Collective leadership is premised on the fact that one of the primary objectives of the Labour Relation Act (LRA) No. 66 of 1995 is the promotion of orderly collective bargaining. As such, the Collective Leadership programme is informed by the fact that workers only power in industrial relations lies in the power of the collective. This is captured by Marx and Engels famous phrase ‘workers of the world unite!’.

Unfortunately, in practice unity is not a straightforward process. One of the challenges of leadership is to bring together a group of diverse individuals and create an environment where they will work together for a common purpose. The collective leadership course aims at providing participants with analytical tools that allow them to fully appreciate the challenges workers faced in their sector and how to address these using the only power they possess, the power of the collective. The course is structured in sessions of three or five days, but can be designed as one day workshop.

Basic Principles of Financial Management

The Basic Principles of Financial Management programme aims at developing skills and understanding needed to apply appropriate concepts, techniques and approaches for sound decision-making in financial management for trade unions and community leaders.

The course uses political economic lenses to critically assess the context that creates and continues to create financial dependency and flourish on it while dispossession the poor working class. The programme is offered in session of either one day or three days.

Future Programmes

The College is in the process of applying for accreditation of the following qualifications captured in the table below. It is envisaged that these programmes will be offered in blocks. Further information will be provided in due course.

FUTURE PROGRAMMES

Occupational Qualifications:

Qual. ID	Qualification Name	Level	Credit
97708	Occupational Certificate: Community Development Worker	4	150
99714	Occupational Certificate: Safety, Health and Quality Practitioner (Occupational Health and Safety Practitioner)	5	256
101321	Occupational Certificate: Training and Development Practitioner	5	190

SERVICE SETA Qualification:

Qual. ID	Qualification Name	Level	Credit
74570	National Certificate: Labour Relations Practice	6	120