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Workers’ education under conditions of precariousness: Re-imagining workers’ education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Mondli Hlatshwayo
Mondli Hlatshwayo*
Affiliation:
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
*
Mondli Hlatshwayo, Centre for Education Rights and Transformation, University of Johannesburg, Bunting Road Campus, House 8, Research Village, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa. Email: mshlatshwayo@uj.ac.za
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Abstract

The increase in precarious forms of work has been extensively investigated by scholars. However, the implications of precarity for workers’ education have not been adequately explored. There is a great need for an approach to workers’ education that will advance the social and economic interests of precarious workers and other marginalised communities who are becoming a major segment of the workforce. Based on in-depth interviews, this article identifies education regarding wages, women and work, working conditions, labour laws and practical skills like public speaking, reading and writing as core elements of a curriculum for the education of precarious workers. Given that precarious workers tend not to be organised in formal structures, non-governmental organisations and trade unions will have to reach out to them to make sure that they provide alternative structures able to craft educational programmes that can build the confidence of precarious workers so that they can challenge their precariousness.

Keywords

I29J46J51J61J83Non-governmental organisationsprecarious workerstrade unionsworkers’ education
Type
Original Articles
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 31 , Issue 1: Affordable housing; Migrant labour; New precarity questions , March 2020 , pp. 96 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020

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