HSAA Education Redesign – Your Questions, Answered!

What is a lab? 

A lab is a new, and promising approach that draws on the strengths, creativity, and wisdom of a group to explore a complex challenge. Labs are guided by convening diverse perspectives on an issue, gaining insights from people with lived experiences, facilitated ideation, building prototypes, and testing them to see how they work on the ground.  

Why are we redesigning HSAA’s education program?

In 2024, a member-led Education Committee developed a framework to reshape how education takes place in HSAA. This framework contains many recommendations, including the need to redesign many of HSAA’s workshop offerings for union members, to ensure that HSAA members have the skills and knowledge to navigate their roles in the union.

Guided by this framework, the HSAA Education department is working hard in collaboration with members and leadership to redesign how we approach education as a union. Recently, the education team held an education redesign lab where members, staff, and leadership met to ensure that the principles guiding this redesign process reflect the needs and experiences of people across the union.  

What happens next in the education redesign process?

Over the next few months, a team led by HSAA’s Education Department will be working to assess existing educational content based on key redesign principles, which include member agency and empowerment, diversity, equity and inclusion, relevant and applied learning experiences, relationality, iteration, and accreditation.

In June 2025, HSAA will host two education redesign labs with Stewards and Local Unit Executives specifically, who will give input on the redesign of Steward and Local Unit Executive training at all levels of experience.  

Over Summer and into Fall 2025, the redesign team will focus on redeveloping our educational offerings, including Steward trainings, Local Unit Executive trainings, HSAA 101, Understanding Your Collective Agreement, Women in Leadership, Collective Bargaining, and Unconscious Bias. Redesigned workshops will reflect the principles that came through the Education Framework, and through consultation with members and leadership. We will also be looking at various modes of delivery and offering more than workshops as possible educational opportunities for members.  

What are the outcomes of the education redesign process?

Revamped training for new Stewards and Local Unit Executives will take place in September 2025. If you’re in one of these leadership positions in your Local Unit, you are invited to test out the new workshop structure and support the Education department as we continue to refine these training opportunities. Other education workshops will continue to be rolled out throughout Fall 2025 and into 2026.

How can I be involved?

As we announce new educational opportunities coming in Fall 2025, sign up to attend! New workshops will also be iterative in nature and provide an opportunity to give feedback and shape how workshops will be experienced by members in the future.