There is a huge challenge for further education to diversify leadership and management, the new chair of the Association of Colleges has said.
, Shaid Mahmood, who took up the post about a month ago, said FE leadership and management werenot reflective of the communities that colleges serve.
“At times it has felt to people from culturally diverse communities that we’ve gone backwards,” he said.“So there is a huge challenge for FE to diversify boards and leadership and management that we must all rise to if we are to build fairer.
“Chairs have it in their hands, as inclusive leaders of their board teams, to take action and start now to drive that positive culture change and diversify boards and executive management teams. We do so much in further education in supporting culturally diverse communities of learnersthat’s positive, and that we can truly celebrate, and it’s a great platform to build upon.
“Fairness, respect, equality, diversity, inclusion and engagement are critically important for inclusive leadership.”
Long read:MeetJeff Greenidge,the man tackling FE’s diversity problem
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More:10 things leaders should be doing for diversity right now
Exclusive analysis published by 91 last summer found that84.1 per cent of senior leaders in English colleges self-identifiedas white British, and just 8.7 per cent identified as being from a black, Asian and/or minority ethnic (BAME) background.
Equality, diversity and inclusion in FE colleges ‘must start at the top’
Steps towards a more diverse FE workforce have been taken by the AoC and the Education and Training Foundation with the hiring of a director for diversity, Jeff Greenidge, earlier this year.
In an exclusive interview with 91, Mr Greenidge said it was time for a difficult conversation in FE - oneeveryone right across the sector should not only be contributing and listening to, but acting upon.
In an earlier session at the AoC conference, chief executive of the , Solat Chaudhry, said systemic racism did exist, and there would be systems and processes within further education colleges thathold people back.
He recommended 10 stepsevery leader could taketo promote diversity in their organisations, including ensuring black, Asian and/or minority ethnic staff and students feel included and conducting an equality-based cultural, systemic equality audit.
In his speech today, Mr Mahmood said leaders needed to ask themselves where equality, diversity and inclusion are on their board’s list of priorities, and said it was far too easy to treat themas a “pro forma” box-ticking exercise.
He added: “It is important that if we’re going to take equality, diversity and inclusion, and the drive around the anti-racism agenda, seriously that it has to start at the top and it has to be taken seriously from there on in.
“The second element of that is that there is a richness of networks around boards and leadership and management, and within staff networks in an organisation. Do we do as much as we can to tap into that and really encourage the diversity within the organisation and also within our stakeholder relationships within neighbourhoods and communities?”
