DANLEP

National courses aim to bring trade unionists together at a national level and are usually run in Gauteng but may at times be delivered in other provinces.

A consistent national programme and one that has featured in the Ditsela programme annually is the DITSELA Advanced National Labour Education Programme (DANLEP). DANLEP, as this suite of courses is commonly known, is a series of longer term advanced courses that is run over a two year cycle. Accredited courses run in partnership with the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Higher Education and Development and the University of the Witwatersrand’s Public and Development Management School. Courses offered within the DANLEP suite are:

Advanced Educator Development
Women Leadership Development
Advanced Organiser Development
Advanced Labour Law Development
Leading and Managing Trade Unions

Strategic Priority: The National Education Programme is designed to help build and
strengthen union organisation through innovative and creative responses to the
challenges facing the workers’ movement.

The DITSELA National Education Programme consists of accredited and non-accredited, formal and non-formal educational interventions. On the accredited programmes, we have the DITSELA Advanced National Labour Education (DANLEP) and the Trade Union Practices Qualification (TUPQ), the latter is gaining popularity amongst the DITSELA Education users. These two programmes are further explained below.

In 2021 DITSELA will Pilot New DANLEP programmes. The programmes are offered in collaboration with the University of the Western Cape. The courses are offered at Level 6 of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), with the UWC certificate carrying 120 credits each.

DITSELA ADVANCED NATIONAL LABOUR EDUCATION PROGRAMME(DANLEP)

Objectives of DANLEP

- - Develop a pool of active, skilled and confident trade unionists and other working class organisations’ activists.
  - Develop a dynamic interaction between the context that trade unions find themselves in, the work they hope to undertake with their members and the development of appropriate educational approaches and content.
  - Build an understanding of individual and collective roles in contributing to the development of the wider labour movement.
  - Pioneer a trade union – friendly approach to the accreditation of trade union education.
  - Create a learning space for trade unionists to critically engage and discuss the issues of the day that impact on worker’s lives

The NEW DANLEP: COURSES are as follows:

1. ADVANCED CERTIFICATE IN RESEARCH AND INFORMATION MANAGMENT
AIM/: Statement of purpose:

AIMS OF THE COURSE:
The aims of the course are broadly to build capacity within the trade union movement and other working class organisations to do research to support the work of their organisations. More specifically, the course will do the following:

- - It will explore the role of the researcher in the trade union context, introduce comrades to some key concepts and terminology commonly used by researchers, and will sharpen skills in some basic research techniques, including on-line research.
  - It will focus on the kinds of research required to support the union’s collective bargaining processes, and develop skills in identifying sources and collecting information relevant to collective bargaining at different levels, from workplace to national levels.
  - It will highlight the importance of research which enables union members to participate actively and critically in policy making around socio-economic issues, and develop skills in reading and writing research reports to facilitate this work.
  - It will focus on researching the union itself, the importance of maintaining data banks and the types of information needed about membership and leadership at different levels, and will develop basic questionnaire survey skills.

ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS:
This course is a Level 6 Advanced Certificate on the NQF. In order to gain access, comrades should hold a DANLEP level 5 Higher Certificate (in Labour Law; Political Economy; Women’s Leadership; or Educator, Leading and Managing Trade Unions, OR a cognate (that is, related) Higher Certificate (Level 5). In addition, because of the advanced level of this course, applicants will only be accepted if they have at least 2 years work experience in a trade union (or related organisation), and they must be computer literature and proficient in MS Word and Excel.

COURSE STRUCTURE AND OUTCOMES OF THE QUALIFICATION:
The broad outcomes of the qualification are as follows. By the end of the course, participants should be able to:

- - Understand basic principles of research, and different approaches to research.
  - Know how to conduct searches for information (on-line and text-based) appropriate to particular organisational needs.
  - Read for meaning, analyse and interpret existing information and research for particular organisational purposes.
  - Understand the purpose of different research methodologies, and select appropriate methodologies to carry out a small research project.
  - Carry out a small research project (define research question and aims, gather, analyse and report on findings).
  - Understand the importance of understanding the union’s membership, and the purposes and ways of collecting and updating key information about the membership and leadership of the union.

The course is organised into four modules, each of which will comprise of a week-long block. These modules are as follows:

MODULE 2

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH: KEY CONCEPTS & TERMS

MODULE 3

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RESEARCH

MODULE 4

RESEARCHING SOCIO-ECONOMIC ISSUES

MODULE 5

RESEARCHING THE UNION

2. ADVANCED CERTIFICATE IN HEALTH AND SAFETY
AIM/: Statement of purpose:

The purpose of this NQF Level 6 course is to introduce participants to the field of occupational health and safety as it impacts on the core objectives of Trade Unions to improve the working and living conditions of their members who depend on their work for their survival, health and well-being. They will develop skills in recognizing and assessing occupational health hazards and risks, and approaches to addressing them effectively at workplace level and beyond in their own Trade Union structures.

In this course, Gender will be mainstreamed (an important element of all components). It is also assumed that increasing technological control of work, increasing “irregular” and opaque forms of contracts for employment and services that blur the distinction between them, and even the concept of “workplace” is increasingly problematic, though it remains the core of OHS regulation by statute and other governmental instruments. Therefore, the course will take the view that the key concepts of OHS, and the laws which govern it in South Africa must be interpreted in the growing presence of precarious employment in increasingly opaque, distended and disrupted supply chains. This has long been a major concern of trade union organization in South Africa, taking new forms as technological control of work accelerates.

Course Outcomes:
By the end of the course, participants should be able to:

- - Understand and be able to apply the key scientific concepts that inform OHS workplace management.
  - Understand and be able to use the copious South African legislation and regulation shaping how OHS is handled in the workplace.
  - Implement an investigation into specific OHS problems in their own workplace and trade union.
  - Develop appropriate strategies for the pursuit of OHS improvements for their members within the Trade Union they represent

ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS:

- - This course is a Level 6 Advanced Certificate on the NQF. In order to gain access, comrades should hold a DANLEP level 5 Higher Certificate (in Labour Law; Political Economy; Women’s Leadership; or Educator; Leading and Managing Trade Unions, OR a cognate (that is, related) Higher Certificate (Level 5). In addition, because of the advanced level of this course, applicants will only be accepted in they have at least 2 years work experience in a trade union (or related organisation), and they must be computer literature and proficient in MS Word.

Course Modules
Module 2: Understanding Key Concepts in Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) at Work
Module 3: Understanding the Legal Framework for OHS in RSA (I), and how Trade Unions have used them to improve working conditions
Module 4: Understanding the Legal Framework for OHS in RSA (II) and how Trade Unions have used them to improve working conditions
Module 5: OHS as a core Organising and Campaigning tool for Trade U

3. ADVANCED CERTIFICATE IN CLIMATE CHANGE
AIMS/ Statement of Purpose:

- - To empower workers and community-based organisation through democratising Climate change knowledge and disseminate information that demystifies the science of climate change as elitist.
  - To develop an understanding of climate change within neo-liberal capitalism and globalisation and its impact on the workers, the working class and the environment.
  - To build capacity within the trade union movement and working class organisations to develop a critical understanding of the impact on their lives at their workplace, in their community and on the environment.
  - To explore the principle of the just transition as a vehicle for eco-socialism as an alternative political economy/ economic system.

OUTCOMES:
Successful participants will have the capacity to:

- - Have the ability to substantively articulate the issues related to climate change and the economic paradigm that in drives it.
  - Comprehend the impact of climate change under the dominant paradigm of neo-liberal capitalism and its effect on workers, the broader working class and the environment.
  - To demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the Just Transition as a worker-centric principle that presents possibilities for job creation and eco-socialism as alternatives to the dominant paradigm.
  - Draw synergies between climate change and what is happening at their workplaces, the community, the environment and develop a sector specific responses i.e. at collective bargaining level, at policy level, at educational level and at the political level informed by research.
  - Ability to implement research on climate change and explore alternatives to the current system that drives a Just Transition (set aims, and gather, analyse and report on data).

ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS:

This course is a Level 6 Advanced Certificate on the NQF. In order to gain access, comrades should hold a DANLEP level 5 Higher Certificate (in Labour Law; Political Economy; Women’s Leadership; or Educator; Leading and Managing Trade Unions, OR a cognate (that is, related) Higher Certificate (Level 5). In addition, because of the advanced level of this course, applicants will only be accepted in they have at least 2 years work experience in a trade union (or related organisation), and they must be computer literature and proficient in MS Word.

Course Modules
Module 2: Understanding climate change and capitalism
Module 3: The Just Transition and eco-socialism as alternatives for workers and the working class.
Module 4: Climate Change, the Just Transition and implications for Energy, Mining, Transport.
Module 5: Climate Change the Just Transition: Implications for Water, Agro-ecology and Food Sovereignty.

ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS:

- - This course is a Level 6 Advanced Certificate on the NQF. In order to gain access, comrades should hold a DANLEP level 5 Higher Certificate (in Labour Law; Political Economy; Women’s Leadership; or Educator; Leading and Managing Trade Unions, OR a cognate (that is, related) Higher Certificate (Level 5). In addition, because of the advanced level of this course, applicants will only be accepted in they have at least 2 years work experience in a trade union (or related organisation), and they must be computer literature and proficient in MS Word.

4. ADVANCED CERTIFICATE IN TRUSTEE DEVELOPMENT
AIMS/ Statement of Purpose:

To build trustee capacity within the trade union movement and other working-class organisations. To train and develop a core of worker trustee who can protect member’s assets and can improve member’s benefits. To enhance worker control and stewardship over how their resources are managed. To promote the allocation of economic and financial resources in a socially responsible and environmentally friendly manner. Furthermore, on a broader spectrum we look to explore the role of the Trustee in a multicultural society, and explore the relationship between the employer and its shared value systems.

COURSE STRUCTURE AND OUTCOMES OF THE QUALIFICATION:
The broad outcomes of the qualification are as follows. By the end of the course, participants should be able to:

- - Communicate efficiently to their constituents. They act as liaison between BOARD OF TRUSTEES and constituents; both into and out of BOARD OF TRUSTEES. Trustee becomes a vehicle for transformation, communication across the broad spectrum of constituencies in a broader SA audience.

ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS:

- - This course is a Level 6 Advanced Certificate on the NQF. In order to gain access, comrades should hold a DANLEP level 5 Higher Certificate (in Labour Law; Political Economy; Women’s Leadership; or Educator; Leading and Managing Trade Unions, OR a cognate (that is, related) Higher Certificate (Level 5). In addition, because of the advanced level of this course, applicants will only be accepted in they have at least 2 years work experience in a trade union (or related organisation), and they must be computer literature and proficient in MS Word.

Course Modules

MODULE 2

INTRODUCTION TO LABOUR UNION TRUSTEES STEWARDSHIP

MODULE 3

INTRODUCTION TO MACRO ECONOMICS

MODULE 4

LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORKS, GOVERNANCE AND CONTROL

MODULE 5

INTERPRETATION OF FINANCIAL DATA

5. ADVANCED CERTIFICATE IN KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY AND WORKPLACE TECHNOLOGIES
AIMS:

- - To look at the impact of Globalisation, Technology & Development.
  - To understand World of Work in the 4th Industrial and its impacts on Labour.
  - To understand ICT’s for Development and Social Justice Advocacy?
  - To know and understand workplace technologies and tools for organising.