Case study Organisation: West Thames College Type of FE provider: College Focus on: Equality and Diversity (Race)
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Action Planning for Race Equality with Partner Colleges Summary of activity This case study shows how partnerships between colleges can help to address issues of representation, resulting in successful campaigns to promote equality to staff.
Background and strategic drive for activity West Thames College is a medium-sized further education college situated in the London Borough of Hounslow. The college’s 6,000-strong student population is drawn from a long-established multicultural community, with around 60 per cent belonging to a black or minority ethnic group. English is a second language to more than half of its students. The college has sites across the area, including its main campus in Isleworth and its Skills Centre based in Feltham.
After looking at the college’s monitoring data, both the college management team and the Community Advisory Group (see the ‘Working with the Community Advisory Group’ case study) agreed that the college needed to attract and employ more people from different backgrounds. After strategic-level discussions, the college and advisory group proposed organising an actionplanning session with other colleges in West London (from the local Learning and Skills Council (LSC) region) to see how the college and its sister institutions could increase their levels of staff from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Set-up and implementation The issue was raised and actions were agreed during one of the meetings with West London college principals, who meet on a regular basis. The Network for Black Professionals helped by creating an agenda for the planning session, which was attended by representatives from the following colleges: • College of North West London • Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College • Harrow College • St Dominic’s Sixth Form College • Stanmore College • Uxbridge College. A representative from the Network for Black Professionals also addressed the event, and provided useful information to the consortium about the national context of race equality within further education.
Obstacles faced Rates of progress in recruiting from a diverse range of backgrounds can vary amongst different colleges. This is being considered as part of ongoing activity within each institution.
Impact and achievements Discussions during the event were very constructive and led to an agreement that the colleges could work together on key areas such as recruitment and staff development. The colleges also felt that the event could provide a focus for future collaborative activities such as training for staff and ways to promote race equality positively across the community. West Thames College was successful in securing funds from the local LSC to produce marketing literature for the colleges’ recruitment campaigns. The first was called ‘Teach FE’, which included a booklet containing strong, positive images and statements to attract people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds to apply for teaching posts at the colleges. This campaign was followed by a similar one for professional and support staff called ‘Think FE’, which explicitly mentioned the colleges’ desire to attract more employment applications from diverse communities. Although it is still too early to see if there has been a significant increase in applications from black and minority ethnic people, it is clear that
one achievement has been the clear and positive messages sent both internally to existing staff and students and externally to the local community.
Links with other equality areas and legal requirements This approach for colleges working in partnership to address recruitment issues, plan staff development and engage with their communities provides a potential planning model, which can in future be modified to address other equality strands. This will help the college to prepare for the forthcoming provisions of the Equality Bill.
Next steps It may be possible for the consortium to hold another event in the near future, as there remain several important areas to discuss and consider, such as appropriate training for all staff in the participating colleges.
“This example is useful in highlighting how colleges can work together on equality issues to improve the image of the sector and encourage more applications from minority ethnic groups to further education in general. It is also good that the colleges recognised the low representation of minority ethnic members of the workforce and decided to do something positive about it.” “A good example of a responsive service, which highlights the importance of engaging with the local community in a collaborative way.” The Workforce Race Advisory Group
Provider contact Billy Elliott Vice Principal – Student and Services West Thames College London Road, Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 4HS billy.elliott@west-thames.ac.uk Find out more about the work of The Workforce Race Advisory Group: www.lluk.org/3151.htm. RW09/09/200910.031
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Ref: E&D/FE/07 2009/11
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