Chapter 3 – Collaboration Between Student Unions & VET Staff – InclusiVET

Your collaboration with student unions can be fostered in different ways:

Enhancing Communication

Student representatives liaise between the student body and administration, ensuring student voices are heard. In order for the communication to be effective, learner representatives require timely updates, allowing them to have the time to provide meaningful feedback and input (SEPR and SKUPNOST 2024).
Since students are the target of inclusivity initiatives, they should be given the space to lead such initiatives and provide feedback on their impact. Student representatives have the role of empowering students by providing them with tools to create such initiatives, which can also result in students feeling ownership and responsibility toward the school community.

Involving student unions in curriculum development ensures that it reflects the interests, needs, and diverse backgrounds of the students while also encouraging their critical thinking and creativity. This should occur at the different phases, a) before the course creation through surveys where students are asked about their expectations on the course, b) during the course when for instance focus groups are the organised to ask students about whether the content and the pedagogical methods are satisfying their learning needs and c) after the course where feedback is gathered on the experiences of students and used to improve following courses. Student Unions can help coordinate these processes and collaborate with school actors to co-create academically rigorous learning outcomes aligned with students’ needs.
Accessibility assessments should cover classrooms, materials, assessments, and teaching methods. Student unions play a key role in identifying barriers, advocating for change, and co-designing solutions. Direct student involvement ensures that inclusivity efforts address real experiences and drive effective change.

There are several ways in which student unions can be supported, through training and capacity building activities, providing access to financial and logistical support, ensuring access to information and resources, creating opportunities for student representation and for student unions’ input in policy development.
Recognising and valuing student union contributions, whether through awards, recognition in school publications, or during school events, or acknowledgment with teachers, staff, or institutions, motivates students and their representatives and fosters the principles of student representation beyond the institution’s borders.

Incorporating student feedback into decision-making processes can be done by providing student unions with a formal seat on key decision-making bodies, such as academic committees, policy review groups, or school planning committees. Transparency and accountability in decision-making should be the guiding principles: regularly updating student unions on how their input has been used and establishing clear mechanisms for holding the institution accountable to the promises or changes that result from student union input will help build trust and demonstrate that the school values and acts on student feedback.
Regular consultations with student representatives should be established to ensure that input from student unions is gathered as a long-time process and not on an ad hoc basis.