Advancing Equality in Further Education

An online course to support and develop knowledge and understanding of the role of equality and diversity work within Further Education.

This course was written and developed by Vicky, Chloë, Claire and Jo working alongside Kathryn James (Education Consultant and Director at KJ Consulting Solutions Ltd) on behalf of the Education and Training Foundation.

This freely available course is accessible on the FutureLearn platform (click the ‘Access Resources’ link below), aims to support practitioners to develop their knowledge and understanding of the role of equality and diversity work within Further Education. Specifically in relation to our legal duties and responsibilities and also regarding how and why embedding inclusive practices enriches our work with learners. This course is for everybody who works in the FE sector, whether you are working directly with learners or not. This is because promoting equality, diversity and inclusion benefits everyone in an organisation, particularly when working together collaboratively, and is part of the FE sector’s role in creating a fairer society.

The objectives of the course for participants, is to develop the knowledge and confidence to:

• Create spaces within your role that support and encourage respectful discussion with colleagues and learners regarding equality, diversity and inclusion, helping learners to understand and appreciate others, value diversity and share their own ideas and insights
• Explain why it is essential to actively challenge prejudices and discriminatory views and attitudes within our educational spaces, and feel equipped with the terminology, language and legal understanding to take meaningful action where appropriate
• Share your understanding of equality legislation and the 9 protected characteristics, its specific implications for your role in FE and post-16 learning and the overarching responsibilities of your organisation
• Embed inclusive practices to support learners within your everyday role and identify opportunities to collaborate with others to bring about change and improvement within your organisation
• Assess and reflect upon your current knowledge and understanding of different aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion, and undertake your own research so that you can respond effectively to the specific needs of learners and colleagues within your organisation. 

 

 

Below is a selection comments received during our evaluation stage:

Well written course objectives that are clear and follow the ETF guidance on the use of learning objectives.

 

The attached learning journal is a useful resource that enables/supports ongoing reflection and logging of progress made and learning that has taken place via the use of RAG indicators.

 

Very good use of visuals throughout the course that support the understanding of the text, and often visual representations are more impactful.

 

A fantastic range of resources used throughout that not only provide variety but they are often very current, thought provoking and instrumental in demonstrating significant points made in the course content.

 

Good use of scenarios throughout to aid the application of learning. This is also backed up with an answer to provide clarification which is important.

 

The course feels very respectful of its readers/participants in terms of the way it is written, explained, examples used, and tasks set. This feels very important considering the nature of the content.

 

The content of the course is well balanced between key and underpinning information that for some may be new but for many will act as a useful recap, and new concepts/ideas that some or most will not have heard, read or thought about before. This is actually reflected in the few participant comments already added.