European Trade Union Committee for Education

On 22 February 2017, ETUCE held the first Advisory Group meeting in the new project “Education Trade Unions for the Teaching Profession. Strengthening the capacity of education trade unions to represent teachers’ professional needs in social dialogue.” The project seeks to build the capacity of education trade unions to represent teachers’ professional needs and to enhance teachers’ professional issues as a crucial matter of social dialogue in the education sector. It is designed for two years (2017-2018) and co-funded by the European Commission.

Project Advisory Group includes representatives of ETUCE member organisations from Germany (GEW), Poland (ZNP), Italy (UIL Scuola), Latvia (LIZDA), Finland (OAJ), and Lithuania (FLESTU) who represent different sectors of education from early childhood to adult education. At the first meeting, members of Advisory Group discussed project objectives, main activities, and expected outcomes.

The meeting was also an opportunity for Advisory Group to meet researchers working on the project and to discuss the preparation of the online survey which is an essential part of the project. The survey seeks to find out what are teachers’ professional needs in different European countries and what education trade unions do to represent these needs needs within social dialogue structures.

Besides the survey, project activities include three training workshops in Warsaw, Berlin, and Rome where participants will have a chance to share good practices and to acquire knowledge and expertise on how education trade unions can support teacher training. The project final conference is to be held in Brussels in 2018 where a set of practical guidelines is to be discussed.

To find out more about the project, please, visit the project webpage.