Wales needs to adopt a bold, new approach to education that would make co-operation a defining feature of national life, from early years to apprenticeships, further education and business schools, writes David Smith of Co-operatives Wales.
Making a Co-operative Wales: A Manifesto for Co-operative Education in Wales, produced by Co-operatives Wales and partners, argues that the nation stands at a decisive moment.
Economic inequality, climate pressures, digital disruption and social fragmentation, demand an education system that actively teaches people how to work together, share power and build fairer local economies.
This core message is simple but transformative: if Wales wants a co-operative, democratic economy, it must first build an underpinning co-operative, democratic education system.
Related: The fight to get co-operation on the curriculum
Education through co-operation
Co-operative learning should be embedded throughout, making co-operation a central principle of the Curriculum for Wales rather than an occasional enrichment activity.
- Drawing on Welsh specific guidance and Co-operative Early Years guidance, means prioritising relationships, empathy, turn-taking, shared play and experiences of fairness and belonging.
- In primary schools, it recommends class meetings, jointly created rules, simple co-operative enterprises such as gardens or shops and exploring Wales’ history of mutual aid and co-operative organising.
- By secondary school, the emphasis shifts to democratic participation and social justice: student-led co-operatives, restorative approaches to conflict, and inquiry into real economic, environmental and community issues.
- In further education, apprenticeships and post-16 pathways, there should be progression routes into co-operative enterprise, community wealth building, local governance, sustainable business practice and social innovation.
- Universities and business schools are urged to integrate co-operative economics, governance and ownership into mainstream courses, supported by research on democratic innovation. Cwmpas is highlighted as a key national partner linking higher education institutions with real co-operatives and community enterprises.
Doubling the co-op economy
Wales’s co-operative, mutual and social economy already supports around 14,000 jobs, with thousands more in the wider economy. Policymakers across the UK have expressed ambitions to double the size of the co-operative and mutual economy.
This ambition will not be met simply by pulling policy levers.
Success requires a population that understands how co-operatives work; legally, financially and democratically and has the confidence to create, join and lead them. A young person in Wales can still complete 15–20 years of education, without ever encountering co-operatives or alternative democratic business models. This is a systemic failure undermining Wales’s future economic wellbeing and resilience.
Cynefin, citizenship, bilingualism
Distinctively Welsh concepts are woven throughout. Cynefin (belonging, place, identity and interconnection) is promoted as a cultural anchor and a framework for wise decision-making. Learners are encouraged to map their local economies, explore patterns of ownership and identify unmet community needs that co-operative models could address.
Bilingualism is an asset for co-operative life. Language defines the way we think, and Cymraeg, honed over centuries of a traditional, collective way of life, is a language of teamwork, leadership, negotiation and shared enterprise.
Bringing co-operative education to schools
Collaboration, ethics and democratic competencies must be recognised in assessment processes if schools are to prioritise them. Co-operative content should be integrated across humanities, business, science, technology, maths, and we propose a national co-operative challenge within the Welsh Baccalaureate.
To give the agenda visibility an annual Robert Owen Day each May, promoting the Newtown-born pioneer of co-operative education and connecting schools, communities, co-operatives and Co-operatives Wales in practical projects.
In an era of AI, social media and a digital-only drift, co-operative education is essential, enabling digital democracy: teaching collective problem-solving, critical digital literacy and community ownership of technology.
Further engagement is invited in developing this plan via [email protected]. Read the full manifesto here.
Main image: Robert Owen, the Welsh social reformer and early co-operator. Painting by William Henry Brooke
