Bringing together education trade unions in Berlin to understand how to address the needs of young teachers in the current context
Published:
On the 28th of September 2022, the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) came together in Berlin to provide education trade unions with the space to discuss how they could more fully address the needs of their young members in the face of intersecting global crises.
The event was brought about as a result of the publication of joint research by the Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI), ETUCE and FES.
As part of the forum, CELSI researcher, Barbora Holubova, highlighted that that the commissioned study found that there are manifold factors that hinder young professionals from joining and engaging with education trade unions. However, it was emphasised that these barriers could be overcome by education trade unions enhancing their focus on activities – such as creating innovative upskilling and career development programmes – that motivate early career educational professionals to join the union.
The event provided a platform for trade union representatives to respond to the commissioned research and speak to the challenges of conducting education trade union work with young members in a context of continual upheaval. Participants in the event from Montenegro, Portugal, Turkey and Germany underscored that the current economic, health and political crises had only served to exacerbate pre-existing issues for young teaching professionals, pushing educators into precarity in their respective contexts.
Whilst participants acknowledged that these multiple crises contributed to diminishing the attractiveness of the teaching profession, representatives from the member organisations spoke of the desire to continue the crucial work that was necessary to attract and retain young professionals in the sector.
The event concluded with a lively discussion of the potential needs of ETUCE members, the activities that could be organised to realise these diverse demands and the way in which national policy can be formulated to support young educational professionals create blossoming learning environments in which they feel supported.
Larry Flanagan, president of the European Trade Union Committee for Education, echoed the need for unions to continue to attract young teachers and other education personnel to positively change the education landscape for all.