This brief begins by, first, highlighting challenges facing worker organisations in Africa today and links them to structural changes under global capitalism. Second, it explores the shortcomings of union responses in meeting the challenges posed by neoliberal restructuring. It suggests that rethinking and reinvesting in workers’ education can address some of these challenges. Third, it explores the different and contested approaches towards workers’ education in Nigerian and South African labour movements in the past. It argues that, in the current context, the task of union revitalisation will be contingent on rethinking workers’ education strategies. It advocates for a return to a ‘radical’ approach to workers’ education and a ‘democratisation’ of workers’ education programmes. Fourth, the brief proposes that, in order to live up to the historical task of revitalising the labour movement, organisations will need to review both the content and methods of their workers’ education programmes.