Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the third part of the Young Leaders programme has begun - this time in hybrid form. Participants from Poland met on site in Kazimierz Dolny, while participants from Portugal and France took part via video conference.
In three days, the future leaders of trade unions and workers' organisations are to acquire important skills and knowledge and become valuable multipliers for the social dialogue. Initially planned as a face-to-face event, the course will be offered as a hybrid event due to travel restrictions.
The focus of the current series of courses is above all on imparting values to future leaders: "This course is like a little pit stop from everyday life to reflect on your own role in a trade union," says Jarosław Kucharski from the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow. He has been supervising the course series from an academic perspective since the beginning. "This is already the fourth course series, and this time we are focusing discussing values and their implementation. It is a great approach for us as academics because we are deeply immersed in the daily life of the trade unions. The participants may benefit from our scientific approach," says Kucharski.
European exchange unites
Participants* in the courses are under 35, successfully active in workers' organisations and this year they come from Poland, France and Portugal. Aneta Szczykutowicz works for the Nowy Stav Foundation from Poland. The Foundation usually organises the first and fourth part of the course series: "This time, of course, everything was different. Actually, the course was supposed to take place in April. The Corona crisis has changed everything. At first I was afraid that the hybrid form with online participants* would present us with too many challenges. But we can see that it works well.
After all, it is the exchange of information between participants that is the main focus of the series. "We cannot explain to participants how trade unions work in their countries. But that is not the goal either," says Kucharski, "We are convinced that everything starts with values. Our aim is to develop these values and to show how this can be integrated into everyday trade unionist worke. These values are the same everywhere".
The fourth and final part of the series is scheduled to take place in Paris in December 2020 and is organised by EZA-member CFTC (Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens). Those interested in the next series of courses can contact EZA or the respective partner organisations.