SOCIETY & CITIZENSHIP
NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2013
Vice President Society & Citizenship: Dom Anderson “Society and citizenship is about capturing the transformative power of education, to build people’s confidence to stand up and defy all the elitist expectations of who should and who should not be in education”
Society and Citizenship Society and citizenship was the last set of motions to be debated at National Conference, and had a focus on action and organising for the General Election. This section began with a motion on ‘organising now and for 2015’. As a result of this motion passing, NUS’ activist development programme will be concentrated on supporting
specific campaigns, such as the living wage and transport costs. It also looks toward building for the General Election 2015, stressing “to mobilise students and influence politicians locally ahead of the General Election”. ‘Votes at 16’ was another topic debated in this zone. Recognising that the right to vote is a fundamental part of citizenship, the motion that passed
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calls for a set of actions to ensure votes at 16 is firmly on the agenda at the 2015 General Election. This includes lobbying political parties, gaining support from MPs, developing campaign materials and highlighting the campaign in the media. Amendment 402a also passed, so in addition to the main motion about Votes at 16, this amendment calls for direct action during the General Election in 2015. NUS will organise around local and national elections, starting in May 2013 to get 16 and 17 year-olds along to ballot stations and stage sit-ins in protest at their voices being shut-out. Only two full motions were debated before time came to an end on this section at National Conference. The remaining motions will be passed to the National Executive Council (NEC) to debate further and pass or reject.
Fringe: the modern jobs economy NUS’ new report The Modern Jobs Economy sets out key trends in the current UK labour market and how a student’s education influences their future employment. The panel consisted of Faiza Shaheen (senior researcher at the new economics foundation), Martin Edmondson (chief executive at Graduates Yorkshire and Gradcore), and Josh Smith (education officer at Leeds University Union). Building on the report, this panel discussion featured Faiza who drew attention to shifts in employment and study trends outlined in the report, highlighting that there are now many more people with “middle” qualifications but far fewer jobs at that level, and there are an increasing
amount of people in low-earning jobs. Martin spoke of his experience in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector and encouraged working with these groups to create employment opportunities for students, citing that “70 or 80 per cent of new jobs are created by SMEs”. Josh spoke about some of the employability work at Leeds University Union, and stressed that such work should be taken seriously by the student movement. He said: “There are some people who don’t think employability has a place in students’ unions, but I don’t agree with that. We’ve spoken to our students and they say that employability is important to them.”