Support radical independent trade union education for the whole movement
GFTU Educational Trust
"GFTUET welcome everyone who wants to learn. Reach out and find the next opportunity available for you."
"The GFTUET allowed me to learn from others, within my union and wider affiliates, and create a network of support and friends in the movement too."
GFTU Educational Trust (GFTUET) believes in education to support lasting change in the lives of workers.
The GFTU Educational Trust:
- Provides education for the trade-union movement, wider working class, and young workers.
- Develops and delivers learner-centred training, education and mentoring for workers, trade-union reps and officers focused on challenging economic inequality, racism and sexism and strengthening rights at work.
- Develops skills and knowledge through education and training programmes through our work with trade unions and other partners.
- Supports trade unions to develop best practice in education.
We all learn differently and at the GFTU Educational Trust, we pride ourselves on providing topical and thought-provoking learning opportunities, which are sometimes beyond the classroom, such as a conference or live performance.
Knowledge is powerful and through learning, we develop understanding that stays with us, enabling us to be empowered to make a difference, to make more informed choices and support others to make a difference for themselves, their union, family, and communities.
There is something for everyone who is already active or wants to become active in their trade union. Our aim is to inspire, educate and support trade union activists across the UK and beyond.
You may be a new union member just finding out about how to get more involved in your union or a seasoned activist, a full-time union officer, or possibly something in between.
Our mission at GFTU Educational Trust is to provide education for the trade union movement, wider working class and young workers. Established by the General Federation of Trade Unions in 1970, our founding aims were to educate workers in “economic history and theory, industrial law, and the history and principles of industrial relations.” To this day, we ensure that political economy, labour history, internationalism and the politics of industrial relations form a core part of our broad educational provision.
We provide a range of face-to-face, online, and residential courses as well as, for our core programme, using an innovative blended learning approach which combines the benefits of residential and online education.
You can see the full range of our current provision below.