Degree Type: 

Diploma

Department: 

Department of Labour and Human Resource Studies

Programme Duration: 

2 years (Diploma Entry)

Modes of Study: 

Regular

About Programme: 

Not Published

Entry Requirements: 

Not Published

Goal / Aim / Objectives: 

Not Published

Career Opportunities: 

Not Published

Programme Structure

Level 50

First Semester

DLS 101S: Research Methods
3 Credit(s)

The course provides students with the constituents of research proposal writing. The specific topics include: the nature and value of social science research, such as the approaches to knowledge and their limitations, origin of social science research, types, principles and functions of social science research. Ethics in research, selecting the research problem or topic, formulation of objectives, research questions and hypothesis and the determination of variables will also be treated. Also, to be examined are the literature review process and research proposal writing.

DLS 102S: Policy and Strategic Planning
3 Credit(s)

The course is designed to help students understand policy formulation and administration and methods of strategic planning in public and private institutions. The topics include: theory and practice of policy and administration; framework for evaluating policies; problem solving techniques and decision-making; public policy-making in developing states and improving public policy-making. A major focus will be on elements of strategic planning; strategic alternatives; designing a strategic plan and implementing, monitoring and evaluating the strategic plan.

DLS 103S: Labour Relations and Trade Unionism in Ghana
3 Credit(s)

This course introduces students to the development of trade unionism in Ghana and the role of trade unions in labour relations and national development. Specifically, the course focuses on: Origins of trade unionism; history of trade unions and other workers’ organisations in Ghana and their activities; labour relations; elements and features of labour relations in Ghana and the role of trade unions in labour relations. Also, to be examined are trends in labour relations; trade unionism and its Challenges as well as national Labour and labour relations challenges.

DLS 104S: Gender and Labour Relations
3 Credit(s)

The course develops in students, the ability to confront problems of gender and gender relations at the workplace and beyond.  It covers the gendered structure of labour markets and trade union participation in the specific context of Ghana. Characteristics of male and female employment in Ghana; gender relations at the workplace; sexual harassment in the workplace; gender relations and trade union participation; labour legislation and gender interests and framework for addressing gender needs in the workplace are the major topics to be treated.

DLS 105S: Political Economy of Ghana
3 Credit(s)

This course is intended to equip students to examine critically the interaction between Ghanaian and the global economy, politics and their impact on current living and working conditions in Ghana. The detailed topics to be treated are: The Ghanaian (pre)-colonial economy, economic reforms in Ghana and their effects on Ghanaian labour markets and labour relations; the role of supra-state institutions (IFIs: IMF, World Bank, WTO, MNCs) as well as the role of donor agencies (USAID, JICA, CIDA, SIDA) G-8, Paris Club, African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) in influencing the labour markets.

DLS 106S: Contemporary Issues in Economic and Labour Relations
3 Credit(s)

This is a practical course in which students are exposed to contemporary global and local issues particularly in the area of politics and economics and how these impinge on labour relations in national development. The course seeks to expose students to contemporary issues, as well as equip them with the capacity to present commentary of such issues in a take home term paper. Students will be required to conduct secondary data research on the issue of interest to write their commentary.

DLS 107S: Theories of Labour and Work Organisation
3 Credit(s)

The course provides an overview of the main theoretical perspectives in the field of labour and work organisation. The following topics will be treated: Labour as a factor of production; labour market theories such as the neoliberal, institutional, Keynesian and radical theories of the labour market and their implications for labour. In addition, labour migration dynamics and internal labour market issues such as the new and emerging forms of work including invisible work, home-based work, contract work, out-sourced work, casual work and domestic work will also be treated.

DLS 108S: Language and Communicative Skills
3 Credit(s)

The course deals with the English Language as a tool for communicating ideas.  Topics to be treated include: grammar, the nature of communication, work classes, phrases, and clauses, type of sentences, concord, reading and comprehension. Writing skills (making an outline, writing the paragraph, essay, minutes, speeches, reports, and memoranda) and editing (spelling, collocation, appropriate register, cohesion and punctuation) are also to be discussed.

DLS 109S: Internship
3 Credit(s)

This requirement of the programme focuses in getting students to acquire practical experience on the job as industrial relations officers, during their long vacation. Students will thus be required to spend a maximum period of one month in an internship position and return with a confidential assessment by the section head. The criteria for assessment will be provided by the course coordinator.

DLS 110S: Term paper
3 Credit(s)

Second Semester

DLS 202S: Negotiation Skills
3 Credit(s)

This course seeks to introduce students to the concepts and practice of negotiation. It will treat notions of power and how power relations are played out during negotiations. The legal instruments used in negotiation, skills required for negotiations as well as the actual processes of negotiation are all treated. Also, to be treated are Planning negotiations and conflict resolution in the negotiation.

DLS 203S: Labour Relations in the Informal Sector
3 Credit(s)

The focus of this course is to provide students with the knowledge for understanding the structure and operation of the Ghanaian informal and rural economy and trade union efforts at organising and defending labour interests within informal economy. Specific topics to be treated are: Definition of the rural and urban informal economy; approaches to conceptualising informal economy; Informal economy growth factors such as globalisation; labour relations in the informal economy; labour force needs in the Informal economy and organising labour in the rural and urban informal economy.

DLS 204S: Democracy and Workers’ Participation
3 Credit(s)

The principles of democratic participation are discussed in this course. Also, to be discussed are: the concept and principles of democracy; democratic institutions and their roles; trade union internal democracy; elements of democratic participation; democratic participation at various levels; gender relations and democratic participation; existing forms of democratic participation at the workplace; and national and international trends in democratic participation.

DLS 205S: Employment, Labour Market Situations and Working Conditions
3 Credit(s)

In this course, topics highlighted include: Concepts such as employment, unemployment and under- employment will be explained and operationalised in Ghana. Labour Migration implications for urban and rural labour markets; Jobs and skill demands in the modern economy as well as wage determination and income distribution differences will be discussed. The course will also deal with working conditions in Ghana; labour market discrimination; sources of employment growth in Ghana; government and Labour unions in and industrial relations practice in Ghana.

DLS 206S: Labour Legislation and International Labour Standards
3 Credit(s)

This course is designed to promote knowledge and understanding of labour legislation in Ghana as well as the principles and values underlying international labour standards.  It will in addition provide students with the knowledge about principles and values underlying international labour standards; core international labour standards – their main elements and features; international labour standards -mechanisms for upholding them; evolution of labour legislation in Ghana and labour laws in Ghana – their main features and elements. Labour laws and labour relations praxis in Ghana and comparative trends in labour relations and legislation will also be treated.

DLS 208S: Computing
3 Credit(s)

This course equips students with the skills in computer hardware and software to enable them to use the computer for data analysis as well as report writing. The discussions focus on information processing cycle; Microsoft word basics for word processing; data input and analysis in SPSS; data input and analysis in excel as well as the internet functions and tools for accessing the internet.

DLS 209S: Occupational Health, Safety and Environment
3 Credit(s)

This course is multidimensional as it focuses on occupational, Safety, Health and Environmental. The course begins with the conceptualisation of health and safety, hazards and risk. Also examined are the process of risk assessment; perspectives on the various types of risks such as environmental (noise, air quality, energy conservation and land degradation), occupational (e.g. working facility, working equipment, posture, height, chemical exposure) and community risks (e.g. traffic, transport, disease prevention); the health and safety situation in Ghana and the role of trade unions in ensuring safe workplaces, environment and community for labour will also be discussed.

DLS 210S: Basic Statistics
3 Credit(s)

The course is designed to introduce students to basic statistical concepts and their application in research project work as well as in the world of work. Detailed course content include: Nature and meaning of statistics, variable classification, scales of measurement, and data description and presentations (Charts, tables, graphs etc.). Topics such as relative frequency (percentages, proportions and ratios) as well as measures of central tendency (mean, mode, median) and measures of dispersion will also be treated.

DLS 299S: Project Work
3 Credit(s)

The Project paper will be presented at the end of the third year as a prerequisite for the award of a Diploma. The paper shall not be less than 10,000 or more than 20,000 words on a chosen topic within any subject area of the programme.