T & L TRAINING

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICY

 

T & L Training’ Business Plans, Strategies and Policies confirm our commitment to providing equal opportunities in education, training and employment for everyone regardless of their nationality, religion, religious belief, racial or ethnic origin, disability including limitations to physical access or resources, marital status, age, gender, sexual orientation or preference, level of literacy or numeracy, behavioural or learning difficulties etc.  Any people connected with T & L Training are required to hold the same responsibility and commitment.

 

We will make sure everybody involved in our training and development is treated fairly, and will make every effort to prevent any activities or procedures that unfairly discriminate, either directly or indirectly. We will monitor what we do and the impact of our actions and regularly discuss any issues or problems relating to equal opportunities with learners, staff and other people involved with T & L Training.

Overall Aims - T & L Training seeks to ensure that:

 

• The content, delivery and assessment of our training programme do not discriminate and take into account the needs of all our existing and potential learners. All training and assessment will be monitored and reviewed regularly to make sure that all learners are able to participate equally and have the support they need to achieve their qualification.

 

• Where practical we will make reasonable adjustments to ensure that learners and staff who have a disability will have equal access to the opportunities for training and development which T & L Training has to offer. This could include but will not be limited to carrying out assessments out of assessors’ normal working hours, carrying out assessments at weekends, providing specialist equipment or making changes to assessment locations.

• The style and language of documentation, advertising and publicity materials will be closely monitored to prevent discrimination or offence and to ensure they are easily understood and do not reflect stereotyped or biased attitudes.

 

• All staff, tutors, assessors and internal verifiers will provide access to fair and reliable training and assessment.

 

• All members of staff will be responsible for carrying out the policy in their day-to-day activities and action will be taken if they do not carry out this responsibility.

 

• Procedures and processes are effective and deal fairly, swiftly and firmly with incidents of discrimination among assessors, verifiers, candidates and others involved in T & L Training work.

 

• Its Appeals Procedure and Complaints and Grievance Procedures are effective.

 

Harassment and Bullying

Harassment and bullying refers to any behaviour which is threatening, intimidating, insulting, and abusive and disrupts an individual’s quality of life or work. We will not allow any form of harassment against learners, staff, associates or sub-contractors under any circumstances and there are procedures in place to deal confidentially with any complaints of harassment and bullying either at work or during any part of training.  

We will investigate any complaints, take action to stop them happening again and ensure that any victim of harassment receives appropriate support and counselling.  

Any concerns about harassment and bullying must be reported to T & L Training even if there is a separate policy in place at the workplace.

 

Complaints of any kind must follow T & L Training’ Complaints and Grievance procedure and individuals will be encouraged to discuss any concerns either formally or informally.

 

The following list is not exhaustive but provides some examples of unacceptable behaviour:

 

• Physical contact - physical assault, threatening behaviour or gestures, unwanted and unnecessary touching, patting, pinching etc.

 

• Verbal conduct - sexual innuendo, lewd remarks, offensive jokes, mimicry of accents, abusive language, questions about a person’s private life, derogatory remarks about a person’s colour, religion, sexuality, lifestyle, disability, customs or culture, gossip or slander.

 

• Non-verbal contact - display of pornographic or suggestive pictures or poster- offensive graffiti, defacing notices or letters, offensive cartoons, flags or emblems, screensavers, leering etc.

 

• Unacceptable conduct - isolation, aggressive or threatening behaviour, setting a person up to fail, belittling a person, undermining a person professionally or personally, changing or taking away responsibilities without notice, over-scrutiny, unfair allocation of jobs, misuse of internet, email, memos etc.

Implementation

 

In order to implement this policy successfully, T & L Training will:

 

• Issue its equal opportunities policy to all staff, learners, appointed agents and employers and make it available to anyone else who wishes to see it.

 

• Regularly monitor employers and their equality policies to ensure they meet at least our minimum standards in terms of equality of opportunity through employer visits, during reviews with learners and through having service level agreements that set out expected standards.

 

• Carry out ethnicity, gender and disability monitoring of all learners and staff and continue to set targets for recruitment, retention and achievement accordingly.

 

• Review all of our policies annually to make sure they meet the needs of everyone involved with our organisation  

 

• Inform prospective learners and staff at the beginning of any interview that they are covered by T & L Training’ equal opportunity policy and invite them to comment on any questions that they feel may be discriminatory.

 

• Give the results of initial assessments in a confidential environment.

 

• Not carry out any unnecessary ability testing of learners.

 

• Take into account learners’ previous experience for accreditation of prior learning (APL).

 

• Take steps to identify and meet learners’ needs and will refer any learner that we are unable to help to other agencies so that they get the support and advice they need.

 

• Regularly review and monitor our facilities for equality of access and make improvements or adjustments where necessary.

 

• Take into account the needs of staff and learners who have religious or cultural customs requiring a particular type of dress.

 

• Respect the right of individuals to practice their own faith. Fasting periods and other religious requirements such as private prayer will be considered on a case-by-case basis whilst on our premises. Employers will be encouraged to offer the same flexibility.

 

• Carry out any Positive Action activities needed to make sure under-represented groups have equal access and are encouraged to take advantage of training and career development opportunities

 

• Encourage learners who wish to discuss issues in connection with religious festivals, celebrations and practice to speak to their tutor or assessor.

 

• Staff and learners will receive at least annual training and updates on equal opportunities, rights and responsibilities.

 

T & L Training will formally monitor the effectiveness of this policy and their progress against targets and any actions required annually and informally on a day-to-day basis. Any queries concerning this policy, comments or suggestions should be directed to the Company Director, Lisa Ford.

 

T & L Training is committed to complying with all relevant legislation e.g. The Sex Discrimination Act (1975), The Race Relations Act (1976, amended 2000) and the Disability Discrimination Act (1995 and 2003 and all amendments) and will comply with the letter and spirit of all laws and directives.

 

This policy will be reviewed annually. As part of our review process, we will consult with employers, learners, staff, associates and any other stakeholders to look at the impact of our policy on those it is meant to protect. We will do this by collecting feedback from questionnaires, programme reviews, focus groups and meetings and use the results to update the Development Action Plan.

 

All staff supports this policy and the T & L Training’ Director has overall responsibility for its implementation.