ARLAC offers a range of courses directed at increasing the technical competence of labour administrators in various functional areas. Topics covered by ARLAC include:
These theme covers are covered in the different programmes taught by ARLAC.
Refresher courses are offered to serving labour administrators and representatives of social partners. Refresher training allows participants to review those concepts they tend to forget, as well as learn updated information in their field. Refresher courses are non-examinable thus they culminate in the award of a Certificate of Participation.
An important aspect of ARLAC training is that each participant is expected to present a country position paper on the theme of the workshop. This is important as it not only actively involves the participants but also enables them to exchange ideas and learn best practices from their counterparts. Above all these papers form the core of the ARLAC’s grey literature collection.
These workshops also engage participants in individual assignments and group work designed to strengthen their technical competence as well as their human relations and interpersonal skills.
In addition to the Refresher Courses, ARLAC has since its inception been offering National Courses. National Courses are tailor made programmes undertaken to meet the unique training needs of an individual member country. ARLAC takes appropriate account of different and changing national circumstance.
ARLAC requires that member countries in good standing regarding their membership contributions submit a proposal. The proposal should outline, among other things, the intended training programme; background and justification; objectives; target group as well as an indication of the expected outcome and impact on their national labour administration systems; duration, budget and proposed dates.
ARLAC supports at least four such requests per year. The successful member countries are awarded a grant. In return, the member country is expected to implement the programme and submit a report thereafter.
The Basic Labour Markey Course (BLMC) is conducted to apprise new entrants in labour administration system on the major complementary fields. It seeks to create an informed labour administrator who can make meaningful contributions to discussions on any one of the modules covered.
This programme was designed with the assistance of the ILO and the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO). It covers the following seven modules:
The BLMC is eight weeks long and includes both contact and distance learning sessions. It has been underway since 2020 and has proved to be very popular. Thanks to the ARLAC eLearning Portal, ARLAC has managed to extend it to hundreds of participants from all its member countries. A feat which would have been very difficult using the face-to-face modality alone. A total of 572 have participated in the first 16 Intakes of this programme since its inception in April 2019.
Number of Participant in the BLMC 2019 - 2023
Gender balanced participation implies equal representation, which is often referred to as the parity of participation of women and men. All invitations to ARLAC activities (training or policy meetings) request that country delegation promotes gender parity. The chart below shows the gender participation in the BLMC since it was launched in 2019 to 2023.
BLMC - Gender Participation
It has also proved to be popular because of the award given for successful completion of the course. A Certificate of Achievement is offered to participants with a score of 50% and above. The certificate is endorsed by the Director of Training at the ITCILO, the Director for the ILO Office for Harare and Namibia, as well as the Executive Director of ARLAC.
BLMC Pass Rate Since (Intakes 1 – 16)
This is a more advanced course with a specialisation in one of the aspects of labour administration systems. Since ARLAC is not an accrediting academic institution, this programme will have to be conducted in collaboration with universities situated in member countries.
ARLAC will be signing two MOUs during its 50th Jubilee Anniversary Celebrations.
Open University of Mauritius:
The Open University of Mauritius (OU) is a public university in Mauritius. It offer programmes leading to undergraduate, and postgraduate degrees through open distance learning. The vision of OU is to be among the best open universities in the world and its mission is to use technology and a flexible mode of teaching to serve society, transform lives, and provide high-quality education, lifelong learning, and training accessible to everyone while promoting excellence in research. The OU is the only ISO-Certified university in Mauritius.
The MOU between ARLAC and OU will be on the delivery of Postgraduate Diploma or degree in Employment and Labour Studies. The programme is intended to equip labour practitioners with the knowledge and practical skills required for competent practice in this field.
University of Zambia
The University of Zambia ( UNZA) is a renowned university with a global appeal that is driven by pursuit of knowledge, research, innovation, and responsiveness to societal needs. The mission UNZA is to provide quality and relevant higher education, research and innovation that shape the future of society.
Together these two institutions ARLAC and UNZA) seek to provide a Postgraduate Diploma/ degree in Gender Studies. The programme will offer opportunities to better understand how gender intersects with individual life and the lives of other people in both local and global communities.
The typical programme participant for these Tier 2 activities is a professional with some work experience, holding a bachelor’s degree or a national higher diploma from a recognised institution or other qualifications deemed appropriate and aspiring to greater responsibility in ensuring decent work.
These are academic conferences or meetings facilitated by a subject expert. These programmes are specifically targeted at the most senior officials – ministers, permanent/principal secretaries, directors general and their equivalents.
Every year ARLAC conducts at least one high level symposium for the members of its Governing Council, that is, ministers in charge of labour in the respective member countries. Because of the nature of participants at these activities, the symposia are a single-day conference.
They are meant to deal with a current, cutting-edge concerns through preparatory study, followed by a debate and meeting to formulate a communique. Speakers are organised into small panels, according to the theme of their papers.
It has become traditional for ARLAC member countries to use the occasion of their first session of the ARLAC Governing Council Meeting each year to prepare themselves for discussions during the International Labour Conference.
The themes for such symposia are informed by the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization adopted by the International Labour Conference (ILC) at its 97th Session (2008). The Declaration calls upon Members of the Organisation to pursue policies based on the following four strategic objectives as items for recurrent discussion:
