Building on the findings of the joint ETUCE – EFEE project “European Sectoral Social Partners in Education promoting effective integration of migrants and refugees in education” (2017-2019), the project ‘In and Through Education: Education Trade Unions support the inclusion of refugees and migrants’ aims to further build the capacity of the education trade unions on providing specific support to their affiliates regarding the inclusion of refugees and migrants in the education system, and linking it to the attractiveness of the teaching profession. The project also seeks to address the specificities of the refugees from Ukraine.

Advisory Group

  • John MacGabhann TUI Ireland
  • Ana Čanović TUEM Montenegro
  • Agata Adamek KSOiW NSZZ Solidarnosc Poland
  • Inga Vanaga LIZDA Latvia
  • Alexandra Cornea FSLI Romania
  • Rossella Benedetti UIL-Scuola Italy
  • Daniel Wisniewski EFEE Belgium
  • Samira Bührer EFEE Belgium
  • Paul Fields ETBI Ireland
  • Luigi Sepacci ANNISEI Italy
  • Jussi-Pekka Rode Finish Education Employers Finland

Funding

In the frame of this project on social dialogue, two sub-regional capacity building seminars are scheduled. They will be primarily addressed to national social partners in Education in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and hold in two of the partner organisations’ country of origin: Romania (May 2022) and Latvia (September 2022).

The sub-regional seminars will aim to provide a specific forum for the social partners to:

  1. raise awareness of the challenges and opportunities, and discuss elements directly and indirectly effecting the attractiveness of the teaching profession, as outlined in the ETUCE/EFEE declaration “Towards a Framework of Action on the Teaching Profession” (2018) and in the ESSDE Work Programme, as well as new elements emerged during the fact-finding seminar;
  2. collect and disseminate best practices to increase the attractiveness of the teaching profession;
  3. foster reflection by European and national social partners to enhance their knowledge and awareness on EU governance, policies and priorities on social dialogue and the future of education.

Both the project’s external expert and the social partners’ representatives from EU countries benefitting from longer and more successful social dialogue experiences are invited to provide expert knowledge and to share practices for peer-learning purposes, with a view to strengthen the links between the partners even after the project lifetime.

Capacity building is a key priority for the European Social Partners in Education. It not only entails the institutional process of further developing individuals’ skills and supporting the capacity of social partner organisations, but also the long-term engagement in a continuous dialogue process involving public authorities, decision-makers, relevant social stakeholders and employers' organisations. Teachers should have access to tools that allow them to provide quality, inclusive, and sustainable education across all sectors and levels. Capacity building is much more than training. It includes human resources development, equipping participants with access to critical information, and organisational improvement at the national level of Social Dialogue in Education, enhancing capacities and managing relationships and legal frameworks.