Course: Responsible AI Fundamentals for Union Staff
Go beyond the hype around AI, understanding the real opportunities and challenges of AI for you, your team and your union.
As AI reshapes workplaces, we face a critical choice: will we harness this technology to strengthen our movement, or risk falling behind?
From supercharging member engagement or increasing the impact of our organising to handling hundreds of emails at once, taking notes in meetings and providing faster, better member support ... there's huge potential for AI to reduce burdensome work, increase union impact and make our movement stronger.
Hundreds of union staff around the world have already started their AI journeys with us in our unique courses, designed specifically for union staff. These are practical, hands-on online courses, available as either a 3 hour live online workshop or a self-paced course that you can join today.
The course was very easy to listen to and follow … you have taken a massive topic and broken it down into manageable chunks. Also liked your use of everyday examples."
Our courses go beyond the typical AI discussions about workplace or member impact (though that's crucial) to showcase case studies of ethical use of AI in unions and explore how union staff can responsibly use AI to transform our daily work.
Don't miss this unique opportunity to shape how our movement approaches the AI revolution.
Courses available for immediate registration
Live online workshop
16 & 17 September at 3-4.30pm AEST / 5-6.30pm NZST
28 & 29 October at 10-11.30am EST / 2-3.30pm GMT / 15:00-16:30 CET
Self-paced online course
Immediate entry, any time
Course formats
 Self-paced online courseUse interactive learning platform with videos, text, chat and exercises, with lots of opportunities for you to interact with the materials and many ways to learn. You have two months to complete the course at your own leisure. Always on, register today for immediate access. |  Live online workshopAI training session run by Nick Scott including presentations, videos, discussion and interactive exercises. The workshop is held online. It is split into two sessions, each lasting 1.5 hours. These take place at the same time over two consecutive days. Held every few months. Next sessions will be:
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More information
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
Describe the fundamental concepts of AI and its relevance to trade unions.
Explain why AI is important to your work and its potential impact on union operations, supported by case studies.
Identify key AI technologies and their applications within the union context, using practical examples.
Apply prompting techniques with generative AI assistants to enhance your workplace productivity.
“It was very, very good and I can appreciate how much time went into the course planning and design”
Course content
What is AI and why does it matter?
We’ll relate the capabilities of AI to your everyday work and to that of your trade union and analyse how trade unions could be impacted by the rapid development of AI and its adoption by members and society.
Using Generative AI to support your work
We will help you to: determine appropriate generative AI tools and partnership techniques for your current role and tasks; develop and apply good practice in generative AI prompting or conversations; and critically assess generative AI outputs for quality, accuracy and alignment with organisational goals.
Using AI responsibly and ethically
We will illustrate the challenges of using AI in a responsible manner, offer examples of where AI has been used responsibly and irresponsibly in the real world and help you apply mitigating strategies to guide a more responsible use of AI.
"This course has been such a revelation to me. I knew so little about AI and its use in work... absolutely fascinating. I feel like I've been ignoring something so useful."
Training lead: Nick Scott
Nick is the Director of the Centre for Responsible Union AI and brings over 20 years as a senior digital leader spanning non-profit, trade union and research organisations. His passion is helping organisations navigate the complex and sometimes overwhelming or scary world of tech-enabled change in simple, engaging and strategic ways, guiding them through a clear journey to build their understanding of AI and how to unlock its value responsibly. He has worked in-house or a consultant at national and international trade unions and non-profits including Unison, Médicins Sans Frontières, Oxfam Intermon, the International Science Council, Greenpeace Spain, Relate, Family For Every Child and more. |  |
His work building a digital team at UNISON led to it being listed in the Digital Leaders 100 list in the UK, while at the ODI his digital strategy was awarded Digital Strategy of the Year at the European Digital Communications Awards.
"Nick's delivery and presentation was very engaging. The content was fascinating and helped me get a much better understanding of the subject. It was well organised with the ability to appeal to a variety of levels of understanding about AI."
Costs
The cost of these courses is £100 per person for a standard ticket.
Staff working at unions that provide financial support to Unions 21 get a 50% discount. These unions are: Accord, Aegis, AEP, AHCPS, ASLEF, BFAWU, BMA, Community, CSP, Equity, FDA, Fórsa, NAHT, Nautilus, NZPSA, NEU, NGSU, PDAU, Prospect, RCM, RCN, RCPod, SoR, TSSA, USDAW.
In addition, Unions 21 can deliver this course in-house for a union. Please contact [email protected] if you want to find out more.
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