on-line MITx course on Shaping the Future of Work

By: Tom Kochan

 

 

Dear LERA Colleagues,

I would like to invite LERA friends and colleagues and others in your networks to sign up and participate in my on-line MITx course on Shaping the Future of Work that starts on March 20. Given the state of affairs in the US and the world, this year we are focusing more directly on the divisions in our societies and around how to build a new social contract. Through the videos and a new course text we (Lee Dyer and I) are attempting to propose  positive and workable strategies for shaping the future of work.  

The link below has a short video describing the course and a place for people to register for it (it is free and open to the public and you can participate on your own time schedule). The course covers, among other things, the history of social contracts in the US and around the world,  how to build high road firms, how to rebuild worker bargaining power with unions and emerging forms of worker advocacy, a positive strategy for government policy, and how to bring the key stakeholders—business, labor, government, and education—together to build a new social contract.  

There are various ways you, your students, colleagues, or friends can engage the videos, course exercises, and other materials that are of particular interest.  For example, Lee Dyer will teach this material in his on-campus course at Cornell ILR. Others will use selected videos or readings in their own courses or in special seminars. Several community groups will use some or all of the course to support discussion groups on topics of interest; you can complete the Social Contract exercise and add your voice to what the next generation Social Contract should include. Perhaps your local chapter could organize one or more meetings to discuss a topic or two covered in the course. 

Our colleague Bill Canak has volunteered to come to one of your local chapter meetings to facilitate such a discussion with you. We could also arrange to do a short version of the Social Contract exercise in person at a Local Chapter meeting.  We did a version at the Rhode Island local chapter last year and it went quite well!


My underlying goal is to get large numbers of people in the US and around the world discussing these issues and developing their own plan of action to make sure we shape the future of work for all to prosper.  Let me know if you have questions or suggestions and feel free to circulate this invitation to anyone who might be interested.  

Here is the link to learn more and to sign up:  https://www.edx.org/course/shaping-the-future-of-work

I hope to “see” you in the course.

Tom Kochan