 “About Us”
East of England equality and diversity test beds:
working together to improve the quality of learning for everyone in our communities.
10.00 am – 3.30 pm, Thursday 11th June 2009, Newmarket, Suffolk
Whatever our gender, ethnicity, disability, mental health status, religion, sexual orientation or age, equality and diversity is About Us, and the communities we serve.
- How can we best promote equality and diversity in learning in order to make a difference?
- How do we make sure that equality and diversity actions are part of our every day business processes?
- What is the best way of consulting and involving our learners and communities so that their views are at the core of planning, delivery and review?
- How best can we regularly monitor the impact of equality and diversity activities and plan further actions needed?
Six equality and diversity test beds in the region, funded by LSC East of England, across a range of learning provision, are working together to meet these challenges.
At the About Us event, you will hear from test bed members working in the Further Education sector, whether in colleges, personal and community development learning, private or voluntary sector learning providers on the innovative activities taking place within their locations, and you will have a chance to discuss the implications for your organisation.
You will also hear from the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) on other development activities and resources available for learning providers to promote equality and diversity.
Featuring an exclusive preview performance and discussion of Eastern Angles’ “Getting There” production exploring new and emerging communities, About Us is an unmissable event.
10.00 Arrival, registration and refreshments
10.20 Introduction: Permjeet Panesar, Equality Practices
10.30 “about us”: reflections on the testbed experience
11.00 Workshops (a choice of one from 6 – see next page for details)
12.15 Lunch and an opportunity to visit the various stands on show
13.00 “Getting there”: performance and discussion from Eastern Angles
13.30 Workshops (a repeat of the morning session)
14.45 Linda Wilson, LSIS: the next steps, resources and activities for equality and diversity
15.15 End
Workshop titles
- Innovative approaches to engaging with males (Essex: Tendring)
Exploring approaches to engage and assist those males who are known to face barriers to education, training and employment. The Test bed is investigating how the specific challenges and barriers this group face can be overcome through relevant service improvements such as the curriculum offer
- Cohesion and integration (Suffolk: Ipswich)
Probing the main issues around the integration of diverse communities into education, training and the working environment. This theme seeks to identify how the strengths of partnership and community networks can be applied across a variety of funded programmes to tackle issues and work towards achieving shared goals and positive outcomes for all.
- Mainstreaming through Peer Mentoring (Hertfordshire: Borehamwood)
Identifying and sharing examples of successful innovation and practical tools that have proven to provide effective solutions to proposed legislative requirements such as the Single Equality Bill. The Test Bed will also explore how changes to monitoring, evaluation and self assessments can support organisational self-improvement.
- Corporate Culture and Managing the Impact of Change (Cambridgeshire: Huntingdon)
Looking at ways to improve the effectiveness of their own equality and diversity implementation measures and transferring this learning to employers by promoting of the business case for equality and diversity and commitment to corporate social responsibility goals.
- Measuring equality performance and evaluating success (Norfolk: Norwich)
Equality of opportunity lies at the heart of all activities undertaken by the partners in this Test Bed. This workshop will highlight how the lessons learnt by individual providers through activities such as auditing for success can inform and be transferred into the work of other learning and skills providers. We will look at innovative gender specific activity can benefiting vulnerable and at most risk groups and explore how sound evaluation and effective involvement of learners has business benefits.
- Workplace Adaptability (West Essex: Harlow)
The aim of this Test Bed is to explore the specific challenges and barriers faced by particular groups resulting in their under-representation in the workforce and across various learning routes. This workshop will explore how the Test Bed works with individuals and experts within these groups to remove barriers to education, training and employment.
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