Learning for revival; British trade unions and workplace learning A shorter version of this article appeared in 2004, as a Research Note in Work,Employment and Society, 18(2), 413–420.

Against a background of declining union significance and falling membership, this article reviews the recent development of trade union workplace learning in Britain. It is argued that the dominant framework within which this learning is currently undertaken is one of ‘employability’. Instead of an employability framework, it is suggested that an educational framework informed by ‘democratic citizenship’ better serves the need for unions and their members to engage with changes within the workplace and within the wider societal context.     

What every worker wants? Evidence about employee demand for learning

In order to boost learning, recent UK governments have invested in trade union‐led workplace learning. Investing in the supply of learning is useful but ignores the demand for learning by workers, about which there is little research. This paper addresses this lacunae by analysing worker demand for learning, which workers want learning, what learning is demanded and why, and what factors might best lever learning. Data come from two surveys of potential learners and union learning representatives. Findings reveal a large demand for learning and that unions can lever this learning. Findings also suggest further policy development to address problems associated with union‐led learning.     

Lifelong learning: a national trade union strategy in a global economy

The paper considers the role of trade unions in lifelong learning, their strategic approach to lifelong learning, and the opportunities and limitations set by the current stage of globalized capitalist development. The paper has four sections, the first of which considers the relationship between ‘modernization’ as a trade union project and concepts such as reflexive modernity and risk society which have structured much debate in the social sciences in recent years. Secondly, there is a discussion of the exact nature of the role of trade unions in education and training. While it will be suggested that recent developments have greatly increased the scope of trade union involvement in education and training, the third section of the paper will argue that these developments do not represent a coherent strategy on the part of unions, but more a series of responses to the complexity of the contemporary workplace. Based on a theoretical interrogation of data from a number of empirical and policy document sources,¹ the paper will argue that there is a need for conceptual clarity in this field. In the final section, the context of globalization will move to the foreground, in the context of a discussion on the relationship between national trade union policies and global capitalist development.     

Motivating adults to learn mathematics in the workplace: a trade union approach

ABSTRACT

The aim of this qualitative study is to explore adults’ motivation to learn mathematics in the workplace and the role that the trade union education approach promoted in the United Kingdom plays in that motivation. The findings draw on data from 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews with adults learning mathematics, organised through their trade union representatives. Trade unions promote education which uses teaching and learning approaches based on collectivist and activist principles, which is different from mainstream education, so the research explores what might be learnt from this approach. The findings show that the trade union-led approach enables even long-held negative feelings towards mathematics to become positive. The research finds a strong link between supportive social networks, including Union Learning Representative, as well as positive social and emotional encounters in the classroom that develop adult learners’ confidence, increasing their motivation to both learn and use mathematics in their everyday lives. This change in feelings and motivation is termed an Affective Mathematical Journey. These findings, while taking place in a non-traditional context, nevertheless are relevant to practitioners working with adults in both traditional (school and college) and non-traditional (workplace and community) settings. There are also indications of the positive influence this learning has on the relationship between individual members and their trade union organisations.     

Integrated Contextual Learning and Food Science Students’ Perception of Work Readiness

Abstract: The expectation that universities will produce graduates with high levels of work readiness is now a commonplace in government policies and statements from industry representatives. Meeting the demand requires that students gain industry related experience before graduation. Traditionally students have done so by undertaking extended work placements. With increasing numbers of students competing for a limited number of placements, virtual and simulated work environments are becoming popular alternative strategies. This paper describes the simulation of workplace practices through the introduction of integrated contextual learning (ICL) into the Food Science Program at Curtin Univ. as a way of enhancing employability and increasing students’ confidence that they are work ready.     

企业工会在员工维权中角色缺失职能弱化的原因与对策

严格按照《工会法》及其他相关法律、法规规定的程序和方式选举产生工会委员会,与时俱进完善工会立法,要搞好工会自身建设,提升工会代表及工会委员会组成人员的素质,加强对工会权益行政保护与司法保护的力度,赋予工会在与企业交涉无效的情况下有组织员工与用人单位进行集体对抗直至罢工的权力等对策。     

Adult education and the empowerment of civil society: the case of trade unions in Botswana

The paper examines the potential role of adult education in the empowerment of civil society in Botswana. It shows that adult education can be instrumental in the empowerment of trade unions as organs of civil society in a liberal democracy. It argues that the country's democratic tradition can be sustained by a strong civil society. The paper traces the history of trade unions in Botswana showing that the state has mostly weakened them through legislation. It is contended that individuals participate in trade unions as their mouthpiece when they are in trouble with capital. Most trade union members reported not being aware of adult education activities in Botswana. The paper explores some of the weaknesses of the unions and suggests how adult education provision from adult basic education to adult and continuing education at the university could help to redress the workers' problems. It concludes by mapping out some practical ways in which adult education could empower the unions in Botswana as it has done elsewhere.     

新形势下高校工会工作的现状与对策研究

随着我国高校教育改革的深化,高校工会工作面临许多新情况、新问题。文章阐述了新形势下高校工会工作的特点及现状,提出了加强新形势下高校工会工作的对策和建议。     

论工会在和谐劳动关系构建中的职能完善

通过对我国工会职能的考察,并借鉴国外经济发达国家工会制度方面的经验,分析我国工会制度的缺陷,结合具体国情,提出了完善我国工会制度,构建和谐劳动关系的建议。     

Engaging Non-participants in Formal Education: Considering a contribution from trade union education

This paper contributes to the debate about participation and non-participation in formal education by supporting the importance of context as a key factor mediating the engagement of non-participants. Adult women and men who are not engaged in formal education may have no ambition and see no relevance for learning in their lives. They may pass their local college, adult education centre or university with little or no recognition/awareness that it is there and no awareness of the benefit that they could get from its activity. This paper draws on evidence from a study of one group of participants in trade union education that suggests the importance of voluntary engagement in trade union practice was the driver for their enrolment in formal education.     

Students’ perceptions of an interdisciplinary global study tour: uncovering inexplicit employability skills

ABSTRACT

For higher education graduates to be effective in the workplace, they require strong technical skills and the capability to operate across diverse knowledge landscapes to solve real world problems. At an Australian university, an interdisciplinary, short-term study tour programme was utilised to enhance students’ inexplicit employability skills with a focus on managing complexity while developing agility and creativity. To investigate the effectiveness of such a programme, we examined students’ perceptions of an interdisciplinary teamwork assessment task that was undertaken in an international context via a study tour model. We achieved this by, first, introducing a purposely designed interdisciplinary teamwork assessment task, which focused on students presenting innovative ideas to peers and industry members. Second, we elicited student responses via a case study approach that incorporated mixed methods, utilising several data collection instruments prior to, during, and after students participated in a study tour. The findings suggest that integrating a purposely designed interdisciplinary teamwork assessment task, via a short-term study tour model, uncovered certain inexplicit employability skills, namely managing complexity, developing agility and creativity. We make specific recommendations to support this insight, contributing to the mobility teaching and learning research field.     

Utilising Biographical Narrative Interpretive Methods: rich perspectives on union learning journeys and learner motivations

This article explores the use of Biographical Narrative Interpretive Methods (BNIM) in research on motivations for trade union learning. Our use of BNIM – a new methodological approach for us – was intended to test our own research practice in an effort to get further inside the ‘felt world’ and ‘lived life’ of the union learner. We concluded that educational deficit, employability, ways of learning and collectivism motivate union learners and that BNIM, though problematic, exposes a raw subjectivity in union learner agency and motivation which may not be fully invoked in traditional interview approaches, and which is of interest methodologically to multiple research fields including industrial relations. Whilst we have concerns that BNIM may privilege subjectivity and obscure social locations, we also find that semi-structured interviews may prompt learners to adopt hegemonic frameworks, whereas BNIM can allow the articulation of wider social relationships, desires and counter-hegemonic impulses.     

Business graduate employability – where are we going wrong?

Persistent gaps in certain non-technical skills in business graduates continue to impact on organisational performance and global competitiveness. Despite business schools' best efforts in developing non-technical skills, widely acknowledged as fundamental to graduate employability, there has been considerably less attention to measuring skill outcomes and even less on their subsequent transfer to the workplace. It appears stakeholders are assuming transfer occurs automatically in graduates, neglecting the influence of learning program, learner and workplace characteristics on this complex process and its potential impact on graduate employability. This paper unpacks the concept of transfer and proposes a model of graduate employability that incorporates the process. Measures for empirical analysis are discussed. Testing the model would indicate the extent to which transfer occurs and highlight collaborative strategies for employers, universities and graduates in nurturing learning and workplace environments in which transfer may flourish, taking us one step closer to the elusive ‘work-ready’ graduate.     

如何有效开展高校工会的维权职能

近年来随着社会的发展,高校工会的存在责任和性质又有了新的发展,通过对高校工会维权现状的调查显示,绝大多数高校工会组织都能紧扣学校自身改革和发展的主题开展维权工作,但由于受传统发展观影响,高校工会迄今为止大都尚未能清楚完全的认识自身的特殊地位和作用,导致在高校人员维权过程中还存在着诸多问题反很多困境。     

如何有效开展高校工会的维权职能

近年来随着社会的发展,高校工会的存在责任和性质又有了新的发展,通过对高校工会维权现状的调查显示,绝大多数高校工会组织都能紧扣学校自身改革和发展的主题开展维权工作,但由于受传统发展观影响,高校工会迄今为止大都尚未能清楚完全的认识自身的特殊地位和作用,导致在高校人员维权过程中还存在着诸多问题反很多困境。     

工会法律角色初探

劳动者自愿结合的工人阶级的群众组织是我国工会的本质属性,工会具有相对独立的法律地位。代表和维护劳动者的合法权益是工会的基本职责。工会有对用人单位的经济裁员发表意见、对用人单位单方解除劳动合同的监督、参与处理劳动争议等权利。维护劳动者合法权益是工会最根本的工作,工会的一切工作都要以维护劳动者的合法权益为中心。     

The impact of teachers’ unions on educational outcomes: What we know and what we need to learn

In this paper we consider more than three decades of research on teachers' unions in the United States. We focus on unions' role as potential rent-seekers in the K-12 educational landscape, and specifically how teachers' unions impact district and student outcomes. We review important methodological improvements in the identification of union impacts and the measurement of contract restrictiveness that characterize a number of recent studies. We generally find that the preponderance of empirical evidence suggests that teacher unionization and union strength are associated with increases in district expenditures and teacher salaries, particularly salaries for experienced teachers. The evidence for union-related differences in student outcomes is mixed, but suggestive of insignificant or modestly negative union effects. Taken together, these patterns are consistent with a rent-seeking hypothesis. We conclude by discussing other important union activities, most notably in the political arena, and by noting that recent changes in state laws pertaining to teachers and teacher unions may provide context for new directions in scholarship.     

Deconstructing the skills training debate in doctoral education

The pressure being placed on universities to deliver skills training for the workplace has generated considerable debate. This paper deconstructs the broader employability discourse in which the debate is embedded in order to draw out its formative implications for skills training during candidature. The paper argues against erection of a deficiency model in the context of skills training of higher degree research (HDR) students, and that the employability discourse is essentially reductive. It obscures whole areas of HDR knowledge production, thus skewing skills training towards the perceived needs of science students; the significant contribution made by research education developers to skills training of HDR students; and employer responsibility for workplace skills training. Notions of skills transferability, best practice and embedding are all shown to be problematic in that they lack discriminative power. Finally, the paper demonstrates that HDR students do value skills training at the institutional level despite prevailing uncertainty.     

Simulating the global workplace for graduate employability

Higher education institutions increasingly recognise the need to develop both disciplinary knowledge and soft skills to foster the employability of their graduates. For students in International Studies programmes, the workplace opportunities to develop soft skills relevant to their intended professions are scarce, costly and unavailable to many. This paper argues that universities can harness the power of ICTs in ways that students find engaging and offer opportunities to gain professional experience that prepares them for an international workplace. We describe a new work-integrated learning model that embeds a multi-layered in-person simulation within an academic context. Facilitated by cross-national pedagogical collaboration, students participate live in cross-campus experiential learning with online peers. Students’ reflections on the model indicate that this model can foster a range of generic soft skills that enable them to apply their academic knowledge, collaborate with a culturally diverse group and work in a digital world. To refine this blended learning model, more attention needs to be paid to designing appropriate evaluation tools and harnessing cultural diversity more effectively.     

后金融危机时代工会在劳资博弈中的生存困境——来自南海本田停工事件的启示

2010年南海本田停工事件反映出当前我国工会共同存在的一些问题：部分基层工会组织的天然缺位;地方工会职能的扭曲错位;工人代言人的处境艰难。这背后的深层原因有资本力量的步步强化,工会生命力基础一再削弱以及工会代表权强有力保障机制的缺乏。在劳工阶层与资本之间的博弈对抗愈演愈烈的趋势下,中国工会的制度建设方向迫切需要调整。