Trade union modernisation and lifelong learning

Abstract

This article reviews recent developments in trade union education in the United Kingdom. It considers policy developments in response to the government's lifelong learning agenda, and also initiatives from within trade unions themselves. The article is structured in three sections which consider consecutively the contexts of trade union education, current developments in trade union education including the interface between trade unions and expert systems, and the location of the developments analysed in the article in a new phase of modernity characterised by risk, democracy and reflexivity. We conclude that among the many difficulties in moving the trade union education agenda forward are the emphasis in lifelong learning rhetoric and policy on individualism, the policy emphasis on full-time younger learners rather than part-time older learners, and the reluctance of many employers to engage in a more than formulaic fashion with the lifelong learning agenda.