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Continued from the employers' section

In response to employers' input to skills planning, Sector Skills Councils have recently been addressing issues around equality and diversity in developing Sector Skills Agreements. Equality and diversity in the workforce has been identified, by Leitch and others as crucial to the development of the economy in the twenty first century.

The Government's strategy for adult skills is set out in the White Papers Skills: Getting on in business, getting on at work (March 2005), and Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances (March 2006), and is currently being developed further in the light of recommendations by the Leitch Review of Skills Prosperity for all in the Global Economy: world class skills (December 2006).

Its overall purpose is:

• to ensure that employers have the right skills in their workforce to support the success of their businesses

• to ensure that individuals have the skills they need to be both employable and personally fulfilled

• to ensure that the UK, in an increasingly competitive and globalised market-place, is a world leader in relation to the skills of its people.

The Government's aim is that the Skills Strategy should help reduce inequalities in relation to skills and employment. From an ethical standpoint the promotion of equality is an end in itself, but there are also good business reasons for doing so. The aims of the [UK] Skills Strategy will not, in practice, be achieved without a strong focus on issues of age, disability, ethnicity and gender”

[Skills Strategy Equality Impact Assessment,  Department for Education and Skills 2007 p 5].

There are some excellent examples of good practice within and across sectors, and employers can benefit from the experience of others.  There is a wide range of action open to you – training, formal and informal, business planning and management techniques, communication and partnerships that can be combined to make your company an 'employer of choice' for your labour market and a business leader in your sector. 

Promote your good practice here on this website and find out about the latest in good practice and innovation elsewhere – we welcome your feedback.

The Sector Skills Alliance, previously the Skills for Business Network, has been undertaking research on the business case for equality and diversity on behalf of employers and sector skills councils.

A number of Sector Skills Councils came together in a cross sector group to address equality and diversity issues from the employer’s perspectives in the UK and the findings can be downloaded

[Diversity and the Skills for Business Network How the Sector Skills Councils are Addressing Diversity and Some Good Practice Case Studies [GHK Consulting, January 2006] and Equality and Diversity Issues and Solutions Proposed Across the Skills for Business Network (SfBN) [SkillsActive and Skills for Justice Nov 2007]].

These reports highlight the strong and compelling business case for employers to put equality and diversity at the heart of their businesses. They also flag up areas for urgent action. Don’t let your business suffer by being slow to realise how good equality and diversity is for your business. Start here.