About the course

This course is for Committee members, managers and anyone with responsibility for implementing equal opportunities within voluntary/not-for-profit organisations. The Course aims to ensure best practice in transforming written policies into practice. The course moves on from 'political correctness' to practical implementation of equal opportunities for the benefit of users and staff and volunteers. The course will show how equal opportunity policies can be integrated into the organisation's culture and practice, including its aims, activities, service delivery and recruitment. The course will be participatory, with a mixture of individual and group work

Course Content

• Clarifying policy aims and defining equal opportunity objectives
• Tackling internal obstacles and identifying external factors
• Awareness versus practice
• Research and planning
• Who are your target groups?
• In what ways will your target groups benefit?
• Generating support within the organisation
• Introducing change in your procedures and practices
• Setting standards for conduct
• Budgeting for change
• Evaluation

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course participants will:

• Increased confidence in what can be done in equal opportunities
• Systems for embedding equal opportunities within an organisation's service framework
• An understanding of standards for conduct for all staff and clients
• A "Best Practice" view of equal opportunities

Heather was an equality policy adviser for a local authority for 5 years. For the last 15 years she has worked in further education and higher education. Currently running a FE teacher training course, she has also taught on tenant participation and access to higher education courses and was the college's Gender Equality officer. She is highly commited to the development of strategies to address inequality and has had many years of experience of trying to put policy into practice.