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Discusses industrial studies (the equivalent of labour studies) provision for trade unionists in Great Britain with implications for Canada. Provides a historical overview of workers' education since WWI that saw increasing consolidation under the Trade Union Congress, which strongly emphasized work place skills training rather than a broad understanding of labour history and the social and political economy. The Labour government's 1975 Employment Protection Act provided financial support to this instrumentalization that in turn led to further compromise by the TUC under the succeeding Conservative government. Concludes that the professionalization of the TUC curriculum has resulted in a narrowing of its scope, and that it should not be emulated in Canada, where there has been support for broader studies of the labour movement both through universities and labour-supported institutions.