We’re celebrating 11 years of National Inclusion Week, a time for employers across the country to bring the importance of inclusivity and diversity in the workplace to the forefront!
What is National Inclusion Week?
The annual initiative was created by Inclusive Employers to bring employers together to look to build more inclusive workplaces. National Inclusion Week 2023 will take on the theme “Take Action Make Impact”, a call to action for everyone in the organisation. From leaders to inclusion professionals, teams to individuals, it aims to get organisations and individuals thinking about what actions they can take and the impact these actions could and should have for marginalised people in the workplace.
Why is National Inclusion Week important?
National Inclusion Week provides everyone with a great opportunity to think about what we can do to be more inclusive of our colleagues and peers. This is particularly relevant in the manufacturing sector, where there are recognised equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) challenges that have an adverse effect on the industry, preventing it from reaching its full potential.
Deloitte research published just last year found 42% of the LGBTQ+ community report to have experienced non-inclusive behaviours at work, with 33% reporting experience of non-inclusive behaviours in the office and in remote working environments.
A 2021 study by Make UK, which focused on utilising inclusion to inspire economic recovery following the pandemic, highlighted that women make up just 29% of manufacturing workforce. Similarly, leadership roles have a distinct lack of diversity. On average, women make up only 18% of manufacturing Boards and ethnic minority representation is at just 5%.
National Inclusion Week is a focus to inspire everyone to accept their peers, and help employers to move with societal changes, encourage better representation and widen their talent pools to be more representative of our communities.
What are we doing at MTC Training?
With the national science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills gap, there has never been a more critical time to make apprenticeships and STEM careers more accessible, particularly engineering pathways. Here at MTC Training, we’re working collaboratively and sharing best practice to address the complex challenges across our three state-of-the-art training centres.
To help us to achieve this, one of our training sites, Oxfordshire Advanced Skills, is proud to be spearheading its Access & Awareness initiative with BEIS and UK Atomic Energy Authority. This initiative enables us to join forces with ED&I consultant partners with expertise in some of our key areas of focus, supporting us in understanding our internal factors that keep us from being fully inclusive and help us promote and recruit people from diverse groups.
That’s not all. We’re working with our local networks to take our promotion of STEM on the road, visiting hard-to-reach, priority communities to inspire them with new technologies whilst showcasing engineering as a profession.
When training with us, apprentices can refer to our EDI toolkit, designed specifically to support our learners on their apprenticeship journey, and enhance their experience with us. The toolkit aims to provide apprentices and trainers with practical advice, guidance and information on various aspects of mental health, neurodiversity and LGBTQ+ topics.
Our ultimate goal is to inspire and improve inclusivity in our apprenticeship programme, and provide the additional support and encouragement needed to ensure all apprentices are empowered to complete their programme.
How are we celebrating National Inclusion Week at MTC Training?
This year’s National Inclusion Week will coincide with our next, and largest cohort of new apprentices! A great opportunity for us to use our extensive enrichment programme to create a great environment for all our learners from day one.
MTC Training Curriculum Designer, Jyoti Krishen, said: “National Inclusion Week is a brilliant opportunity for us to consider all aspects of our programme, from the accessibility of our buildings to the materials we use to deliver learning.
When it comes to our new apprentices, we’ll hit the ground running by encouraging them to explore what inclusion means and how we can all work together to accept each other for who we are – something we hope they will embrace throughout their apprenticeship and their future careers. Our ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted gradings in Personal Development and Behaviour and Attitudes have given us the assurance that we’re having a positive impact and developing professional and well-rounded engineers for the manufacturing industry.”
Marking and celebrating key events in the diversity calendar is part of this commitment as we engage with stakeholders throughout our local communities to raise our ED&I profile, improve awareness, and increase diversity in apprenticeships.
Keep an eye on our social media channels to see what we’ve got in store and how you can get involved…
Find out more
You can find out more about National Inclusion Week and sign up to take part in some interactive sessions set up by the organisers by visiting https://www.inclusiveemployers.co.uk/national-inclusion-week/