Labour Studies Graduation Program

Posted May 24, 2000


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Wednesday, May 17, 2000 2000-05-11-CO

Labour Studies Graduation Program

SASKATOON - Graduation ceremonies for the Labour Studies Program will be
held on May 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Exeter Room in Marquis Hall on the
University of Saskatchewan Campus. The media are welcome to attend.

The Labour Studies Program is unique. It is the only trade union education
program to be associated with a College of Commerce in Canada. This type of
program is model of distance delivery classes which link students in
Saskatoon and Regina.

The program has also experimented for the past two years with distance
education. Labour Studies Program Assistant Director Larry Haiven says "this
will be the first time that the ceremonies will include graduates who have
taken classes via the video-link between Regina and Saskatoon." The
video-link allows an instructor to teach a class, to students in two
locations (Saskatoon and Regina) simultaneously. The students can interact
with each other and the instructor at this time.

The program was offered for the first time, via the video-link in studios in
both Saskatoon and Regina in September 1998. The Labour Studies program is
designed to provide members of the labour community with the necessary
knowledge, abilities, and skills to help them understand and cope
effectively with the current and future challenges facing the labour
community.

Funding for the pilot project was provided by the Provincial Government
Joint Initiatives Fund.

The guest speaker will be Debora De Angelis, Youth Coordinator of the
Ontario Federation of Labour and an organizer from the Union of Needle
Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). At the young age of 19,
De Angelis organized a union at the Toronto retail store she worked in. It
was the first retail chain store in Ontario to be unionized and to have a
collective agreement. She will speak about "the opportunities and
difficulties in organizing young workers in the retail and service sectors.
Young people have always presented a great prospect and a great challenge to
the trade union movement. And the services sector is one of the hardest to
recognize. Debora is one of their best hopes." commented Haiven.


For more information, contact:

Larry Haiven
Assistant Director of the Labour Studies Program
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-8451