Training

The line of research dealing with the Research and Development of Co-operative Training and Education is aimed at bringing about innovation in that training. To do that, it is necessary to create new materials for co-operative training (see the development of the Elika project), based on the idea that is urgently necessary to reconsider co-operative training on an educational basis, so that it deals with the concerns of the current generations.

On the one hand, the members of Lanki teach at the HUHEZI faculty, where social and co-operative training is given by means of a number of different subjects (social thought, social change, law and a specific subject dealing with co-operative enterprises). It is an advanced centre as far as university co-operative training and education is concerned.

On the other hand, Lanki is developing a training offer for co-operators aimed at encouraging debate in the co-operatives about an up-to-date view of the co-operative movement.

So in 2002, 2003 and 2004 we experimented with a Co-operative Training Module full of ideas to innovate that training. The module has been tried in several different co-operative environments: with co-operators from industrial companies (Fagor), the university (M.U.) and educational co-operatives (Arizmendi).

This module is the starting point and the basis for what in the near future will constitute a broader training offer.

The experimental module has the following characteristics:

Title of the module

Bases and elements for renewing the meaning of the co-operative movement

In-depth approach

The need to open a new phase in co-operative training and education requires an in-depth reconsideration that will address the new key ethical and social aspects of a profoundly transformed environment. The feeling is that there is a gap in terms of ideological training; co-operative training must include elements of reflection, key aspects to situate the meaning of the co-operative movement in today’s context and respond to the new concerns raised. This is why the institute’s training and education proposals are aimed at bringing the meaning and identity of the co-operative movement up to date, in order to offer some clues about reconstructing and reformulating what the co-operative movement means on the basis of new social parameters.

The module focuses on the task of reformulating, dialogically and based on knowledge about its roots, what the co-operative movement means socially and in terms of its identity, in order to adapt to the new key ethical and social aspects. This training and education attempts to serve as an introduction to this.

Outline of the module

The module lasts 8 hours and covers the following topics:

1. The meaning of self-management in a global context
2. Bases of co-operative thought. Arizmendiarrieta’s project for transformation
3. The key aspects of the Mondragón Co-operative Experience
4. New forms of business organisation and the co-operative movement
5. Development of the meaning and concerns of the co-operative movement. Elements to reinforce and renew what the co-operative movement means.

After a number of years of incubating teaching experience, flying time, interconnected research and training materials, we are on the verge of offering training for co-operative trainers, combining conceptual training with pedagogical training. In this regard, we are planning to offer a university postgraduate course in co-operative training, open to co-operative management as well as people finishing their education who see their future in this field.