Trade Union Colleges

(1) The Higher School of the Trade Union Movement (VShPD) in Moscow, an institution of higher education for the training of qualified trade union workers. It was organized in April 1919. Graduates of the VShPD are qualified as labor economists. The school has resident and correspondence graduate programs in the his-tory of the trade union movement in the USSR and abroad, political economy, and labor economics. At the school there are courses on improving the qualifications of trade union workers and courses for trade union activists from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In 1969 the school was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. (2) The Higher Trade Union School (VPSh) in Leningrad, an institute of higher education that prepares cadres for the cultural divisions of the Soviets and committees of trade unions and other trade union organs. The graduates of the school are qualified as methods organizers in highly skilled mass-culture work.

The right to enroll in the resident program of the VPSh is enjoyed by trade union members up to 35 years of age (the correspondence division has no age limits) who have finished secondary school and have experience in trade union work. The course of study for the resident program is four years, for the correspondence program five years.