Courses in the North West region

The UCU workload campaign gives us the tools to tackle increasing workloads and working hours. The failure of employers to protect staff from excessive workloads and stress is damaging our health, our students' education, and our ability to organise to defend ourselves and our sector. This course will give you a generic overview of workload campaign and the role of the workload rep.

The UCU workload campaign gives us the tools to tackle increasing workloads and working hours. The failure of employers to protect staff from excessive workloads and stress is damaging our health, our students' education, and our ability to organise to defend ourselves and our sector In this course you will work through practical examples and explore ideas around how to use the safety rep functions to identify and reduce excessive workloads.

This short course taught over two half days is for both members and activists who want to learn more about, and perhaps get more involved in UCU.

This course is aimed at new reps/caseworkers and activists who will be undertaking this role in the near future. Existing reps who have not attended training before are also encouraged to attend. The course will cover all aspects of your role as a rep including your rights as a rep, union democracy, recruitment and communication. You should complete this course prior to applying for the Rep 2 course.

This course is designed for reps who want to develop an understanding around why mental health is a trade union issue, and to ensure working practices support equality. This course would benefit both UCU equality reps, health and safety reps, and others in the branch who represent or negotiate on behalf of members. The course will reference the Covid-19 pandemic and it's impact on mental health in the workplace.

This classroom based course forms the first part of the health and safety training programme. This course is for new health and safety reps, those who have been in the role sometime but never been trained along with those in the branch who want to further understand the role and legislation that enables health and safety reps to hold institutions to account.

This course is for all green reps along with those in the branch who are interested in bargaining around environmental issues. The course will help you navigate UCU's Green New Deal bargaining advice and enable you to work on a potential claim to the employer. We would urge any reps who takes part in branch negotiations to attend this course as we concentrate on the bargaining around the environmental agenda.

This course is for reps who have completed UCU's Rep 1 course, or our introduction to case work and are now actively engaged in representing individual members. The course assumes you are actively engaged with your branch, understand UCU's democratic structures both in the branch and nationally, and are fully conversant with your branch negotiating machinery.

This course is for those who are negotiating with management or those in the branch who want to learn more about the negotiating process. You will learn about the phases of negotiation, how to represent members effectively, how to develop arguments, define a bargaining strategy and respond to unfair tactics. This course will also touch on some of the practices taught in both strike school and organising for power.

This course is aimed at UCU branch officers, equality officers, equality reps, and others in the branch who want to learn more about how to use equality legislation to tackle discrimination at work and how to develop and promote a branch based equality agenda.

This is a course for reps who are new to representing individual members or those who are considering becoming more involved in the direct representation of members. It remains a good refresher for those more experienced in representing members.