SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND LIFELONG LEARNING

The future of work is being driven and shaped by various factors including technological innovation, globalisation, demographic trends and climate change. All these factors are increasingly affecting the world of work, jobs, skills requirements for both of the young and ageing members of the workforce. It is also increasingly being realised that it is no longer sufficient to rely on the skills and qualifications acquired at or before the start of a career. Instead, workers need to be able to update and adapt their skills to changing circumstances, including potentially changing employment, through lifelong learning and continuing vocational training. The COVID-19 pandemic also demonstrated that lifelong learning has many benefits beyond skills development and employability. During the pandemic, there was huge demand for online courses and a large appetite to gain new skills and learn something entirely different. Given this accelerating pace of change, skills development strategies will be required to ensure the ongoing renewal of skills over one’s working life. Therefore, the regional workers academy aimed at strengthening trade union understanding, policies, strategies and actions in Skills Development and Lifelong Learning. OBJECTIVES The main objectives of the five (5) weeks regional academy were to: i. Strengthen the technical capacities of trade union representatives in the areas of institutionalized social dialogue on skills development and lifelong learning in Africa; ii. Strengthen the capacity of trade unions to engage in skills development and lifelong learning processes and systems; iii. Prepare trade union leaders and representatives to incorporate skills development and lifelong learning initiatives and programmes including vocational training in collective bargaining at sector or enterprise level, mainstreaming diversity issues which include gender, age and disability; iv. Strengthen the exchange with trade union representatives in the areas of institutionalized social dialogue on skills development and lifelong learning in Africa; and, v. Stimulate cooperation and generation of a critical mass of trade union thinking on the issues of training, skilling, reskilling and upskilling of workers throughout their lives. CONTENT The course covered five (5) learning modules: Module 1: Unpacking and Understanding Skills Development and Lifelong Learning and Global Frameworks on Skills Development and Lifelong Learning Module 2: Institutionalised social dialogue on skills development and lifelong learning Module 3: Strategy Development - Engaging and influencing skills development and lifelong learning systems and processes Module 4: Collective bargaining for skills development and lifelong learning Module 5: Skills for the Future and Application of Learning The course consisted of an estimated 40 hours of synchronous and asynchronous online learning, which included completion of self-guided learning modules, participation in live teach-ins (webinars), online interaction and collaboration, and submission of assignments, and ‘application of learning plans’, among others ECAMPUS The academy was delivered via the eCampus, the education platform of the International Training Centre of the ILO. The platform was used for the distribution of course information, training material, learning tasks, exchanges of good practices and experiences, feedback and multimedia content.