RMT EDUCATION CENTRE REBORN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2013 :: RMTnews 15 This year RMT will be able to offer an expanded range of courses for all members and officials at the newly extended national education centre in Doncaster. For most of the year there will be two courses running each week providing a comprehensive programme that will cater for both core skills and specialist courses. Training is available to any member who has completed a Workplace Representatives Level One course and the centre is equipped to provide first class accommodation and catering for learners. RMT has recently made a significant investment in extending the Doncaster education centre and this stands as testimony to its level of support and commitment to educating existing and future RMT members and as a model for the promotion of the trade union movement in the 21st century. Having purchased the building next door, refurbishments are now complete and the refitted and extended centre can now offer twenty three en-suite bedrooms, three state of the art classrooms and preparation space for lay tutors as well as catering, cleaning and administrative facilities. In opening the centre, RMT general secretary Bob Crow announced that the executive committee had agreed to fund a further extension to the property that will eventually allow for some 1,250 students per year to take courses. Bob also took the opportunity to thank some of those who he described as the “unsung heroes”; the staff and tutors who make everyone feel so welcome to the centre as well as praising Mick Hardacre and his building team for the great job they had done in completing the refurbishments. RMT president Alex Gordon welcomed the opening as “an auspicious and joyous occasion for our union and a significant achievement for RMT and one that we are quite rightly very proud of. “ RMT does not provide education for the sake of education itself but so that members can go out to represent their colleagues in the workplace, to campaign, to organise, and to agitate in the interests of working people,” he said. The president also spoke about the union’s proud history of promoting trade union education and recalled how RMTs predecessor organisations had sent some of the first students to study at Ruskin College in 1907. It was these same people who went on to form the Plebs League and in the following year went on strike at Ruskin College to protest for the right to study Marxist economics. This dispute would lead to the formation of the Central Labour College which was part funded by a forerunner of RMT and which established the fine tradition within the union of providing and supporting those who wish to further their knowledge and education. For more information on courses available contact RMT's education officer Andy Gilchrist at a.gilchrist@rmt.org.uk or telephone 020 7387 4771 RMT EDUCATION CENTRE REBORN Union extends education centre in Doncaster, allowing more members to attend more courses