Call for Applications for Honours and MA Programme Open Until August 31
Call for Applications for our GLU South Africa Honours and MA programme for 2024 is still open. Students can send their applications until August 31, 2023.
The programmes are offered through the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. It is a full-time coursework and research study programme located in the School of Social Sciences. The goal is to equip and engage trade unionists more effectively to tackle the challenges of globalisation.
Note that applications must be completed online. Incomplete applications and applications submitted after the closing date will not be reviewed.
For more information about the Programme and the application process, please contact:
Yurisha Pillay, the GLU Administrative Coordinator at Yurisha.Pillay@wits.ac.za or
Warren McGregor, the GLU Programme Coordinator at Warren.McGregor@wits.ac.za
Further information is available here. Read the call for applications here.
South-South Cooperation Ongoing
via GLU Programmes
The Global Labour University (GLU) and the GLU Online Academy have been creating spaces and opportunities for South-South Cooperation to prosper. ENGAGE Asia Programme is the latest outcome of South-South cooperation between the ENGAGE Programme South Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) in Johannesburg and the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations (UP SOLAIR) in the Philippines.
The development of the curriculum of the ENGAGE Asia training programme started with exchanges of information and curriculum-related materials between Warren McGregor, Coordinator of the Global Labour University (GLU) master’s programme and the ENGAGE Programme South Africa at the WITS, and Melisa R. Serrano, Dean and Professor at UP SOLAIR.
The ENGAGE Asia Programme is composed of six modules and follows a blended mode of learning. It is comprised of two phases—the online phase and the residential in-person phase.
Module 1: Global Governance and the Role of Labor
Module 2: Labor and Development
Module 3: Global and National Wage Policy and Finance
Module 4: Changes in the World of Work and the Transformation of trade unions
Module 5: Trade Union Capacity building
Module 6: Group Research Project
The online phase involves the completion of five GLU Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and several chapters of the online Power Resources Toolkit developed by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, that are related to the modules. There is an online workshop involving the participants of the training and an online tutor for each of the modules. These online resources serve as knowledge input into the various sessions divided into six modules of the residential phase.
The first ENGAGE Asia Programme took place in 2023. Twenty-three trade unionists and labour activists from nine countries in Asia (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand) participated in the training programme. The online phase took place between 20 March and 9 June and the residential/in-person phase between 28 June and 25 July at UP SOLAIR. Warren McGregor of the WITS was among the lecturers in the last module of the residential phase.
To further strengthen and sustain South-South cooperation among the trade unions and worker organizations of the participants of the ENGAGE Asia programme in 2023, the GLU Online Academy will undertake the development of certified local trainers in Asia for the online academy.
GLU at the LabourStart Global Solidarity Conference 2023 –Tbilisi, Georgia
At a workshop session of the LabourStart Global Solidarity Conference held on April 30th, the Global Labour University (GLU) presented its educational offerings under the theme of Rethinking Workers’ Education and Reloading Workers’ Politics. Participants emphasized the need for educational programs that address issues related to labour migration, informal workers, and just transition.
One of the participants from Kazakhstan mentioned that she found a MOOC that was translated into Russian helpful, and this led to the conclusion that the GLU needs to provide more translated offers to enable wider participation. Participants at the conference also expressed interest in obtaining further information about GLU’s MA program in Labor Policies and Globalisation in Germany, as well as its online courses.
LabourStart is a news and campaigning website that has been serving as a platform for trade unionists across the globe for 25 years. Its content is sourced from a network of trade unions and social movement activists who work towards defending workers’ rights and supporting workers’ struggles through international solidarity. The LabourStart Global Solidarity Conference is being hosted by the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) and is an opportunity for like-minded individuals to come together and establish personal and collective connections.
The conference will take place in Tbilisi on May Day 2023 and will provide trade unionists from different countries and sectors with the opportunity to discuss important topics such as a post-COVID and post-war world where workers’ rights are respected, and social justice is on the agenda.
Call for Applications open until August 31
GLU, as an innovative postgraduate programme, is designed to equip and engage trade unionists more effectively to tackle the challenges of globalization. offers formal post-graduate Honours and Master’s degree qualifications through the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
It is a full-time coursework and research study programme located in the School of Social Sciences. Note that applications for our 2024 programmes are now open and must be completed online. Incomplete applications and applications submitted after the closing date will not be reviewed.
The closing date is August 31, 2023. For more information about the Programme and the application process, please contact:
Yurisha Pillay, the GLU Administrative Coordinator at Yurisha.Pillay@wits.ac.za or Warren McGregor, the GLU Programme Coordinator at Warren.McGregor@wits.ac.za
Further information is available here. Read the call for applications here.
Labour Policies and Globalisation
The MA programme Labour Policies and Globalisation is open for applications for the study year 2023/24. The application deadline for the preliminary assessment is March 15, 2023, so make sure not to miss it.
The one-year programme takes place at the University of Kassel and the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR) in Germany and is taught in English.
It is tailored to young people who have acquired their first degree (Bachelor/Diploma) in Political Sciences, Sociology, Law or Economics and who have a particular interest and work experience in the field of trade unionism and related areas.
You can find further information about the application procedure here.
Email contact: glu.germany@uni-kassel.de
Elmar Altvater Prize 2023
Virtual Open House: Master's Program in Labor and Global Workers’ Rights
The Center for Global Workers’ Rights and School of Labor and Employment Relations at Penn State University offers a twelve-month Master of Professional Studies in Labor and Global Workers’ Rights (LGWR). The program is designed for U.S. and international labor activists interested in labor rights, social justice, and global solidarity.
It focuses on global workers' rights, work and gender, race and migration, social movements, and labor relations systems around the world. Professors teaching in the program have rich experience in the global labor movement and labor-related research. Students will have opportunities to intern with unions and labor groups and to dialogue with labor scholars and activists through symposiums, speaker series, film series, and more. Graduate fellowships, including tuition waivers, are available.
In the open house, our director, alum, and current students of the LGWR program will discuss the program, curriculum, degree requirements, the application process, and more! We will take your questions too.
This Master's program is part of the Global Labor University, a network of universities in five countries (Brazil, India, Germany, South Africa, and the U.S.) along with global union federations, national unions, and the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Date: December 3, 2022 (Saturday)
Time: 9am EST/ 3pm CET/ 4pm SAST/ 10pm HKT
Registration: bit.ly/LGWROpenHouseRegistration
Programme application deadline: January 31, 2023.
Call for Applications 2023
Global Labour University and the University of Witwatersrand have opened applications for the ENGAGE South Africa Short Course Training Programme. The programme is called “Union Rights, Policy and Practice: Training for Global Union Activists”, and is tailored to trade unionists and labour activists globally.
Call for applications can be found here.
The application form can be accessed here.
For further inquiries, please contact Warren McGregor, GLU South Africa Programme Coordinator: Warren.Mcgregor@wits.ac.za
The closing date for applications is December 22, 2022.
Certificate Course ENGAGE-Asia programme Applications Still Open
"The Global Labour University and the School of Labor and Industrial Relations of the University of the Philippines, with the support of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Global Trade Union Project in Germany, will roll out beginning next year (June to July 2023) a new, two-month blended Certificate Course called ENGAGE-Asia programme - Building Worker Power in the 21st Century.
The training course aims to equip trade unionists and labour activists with critical knowledge and tools that would enable them to take an active part in public debate and in policy formulation and implementation in the field of labour and employment, development, wages and productivity, climate justice and just transition, as well as developments and changes in the world of work.
A limited number of scholarships will be awarded to eligible applicants.
Please find here the announcement and Call for Participation where you can find more information about the programme. The Call also includes the link to the online application form. The deadline for accomplishing the online form and uploading the required documents is on 15 November 2022.
Please feel free to circulate the call among your networks of trade unions and other labour organizations in Asia. If you have further inquiries about the training programme, please email Vera Eileen V. Pupos at vvpupos@up.edu.ph.
We are excited about this new programme and we look forward to receiving applications from your organizations.
Invitation for online participation in the 2022 Asia Alumni Workshop
The Organizing Committee of the 2022 GLU Asia Alumni Workshop invites all GLU Alumni to participate online in the upcoming event on Nov. 1-3, 2022.
With the theme “The implications of the pandemic in the world of work: Expanding social protection and public services to protect workers and peoples in times of crises”, this workshop will be held in a hybrid format, both in-person and online via a video conference platform (e.g., Zoom).
You can check out the Conference here. Read the full invitation here and register by clicking the button below.