Equality Advice Centre 

 Equality in Training 

Unnecessary barriers in training opportunities

It is unlawful for employers to limit access to opportunities for promotion or training in such a way, which is discriminatory. It is therefore suggested that job and training vacancies and the application process should be made known to all entitled employees, and not in such a way as to exclude or excessively reduce the numbers of applicants from a certain racial group. Link to legislation

Investing in your workforce

In order to develop all staff to their full potential, it is important to include equality and diversity aspect into organisation's training and development policy. Link to business case

It is also essential that this has the full backing from the highest levels of management so that the commitment can be translated from words into action.

Training in companies is to develop staff and ensure they are effective in their jobs and kept up to date on new developments. It is also the company's investment in their staff, so they can develop their career progression.

A staff should have an equal and fair chance of receiving training for their potential career development. Part-time staff should also be given the same chance of training.

Benefits

Benefits of a training policy which takes equality and diversity into account:

• Resources used in a targeted and effective manner
• Organised method of allocating resources to all departments
• A consistent approach towards all staff throughout the organisation

Problems to be tackled

• Training conducted internally and externally on an ad hoc basis
• No targeting of training for excluded or under-represented staff
• Training resources allocated to those employees who shout loudest or have most power and influence

Examples of good practice

• An effective training policy includes a positive statement of the organisation's commitment to training and developing its staff and a clear and comprehensive equal opportunities statement
• The scope of the training policy includes part-time employees, casual and temporary staff, employees on career breaks and all levels of staff
• All employees are involved in the identification of training and development needs.
• Training is regularly provided and a qualitative evaluation of training is undertaken to determine its effectiveness.
• As part of the appraisal process managers actively suggest training to improve all employees' performance
• Funding for employees' training factored into annual business plans.
• Training could be incorporated into a positive action programmes link to positive action