Foreword
by Carnegie College Principal - Professor Bill
McIntosh
After publishing
our Disability Equality Scheme within the last 3 months, it has proved to be a
similarly useful requirement to publish our Gender Equality Scheme. The work that went into the production of
both schemes was considerable yet this was merely the start; the real work
begins after publication but the research and very genuine involvement required
to produce the scheme provided valuable insights into the experiences and views
of a wide range of students, staff, stakeholders and partners.
The scale of
research undertaken was demanding but the process was robust and worthwhile as
it became a relatively straightforward task to analyse, draw conclusions and
make recommendations – a ready-made action plan.
We debated the
merit of preparing a single scheme with separate objectives for each of the
three duties - on race, disability and gender - but decided against that for
the present, partly since we had already developed separate schemes for the
first two duties and we wanted to ensure that each duty retained its
distinctive focus at least for the initial periods after their introduction. It
may well be agreed later that we are in a position to have a single scheme with
separate action plans once we have ensured that we have embedded our thinking
and our processes.
In the meantime,
the preparation that has gone into the publication of the Gender Equality
Scheme has provided much food for thought and a useful impetus for on-going research
in the spirit of self-evaluation to which we have become accustomed.
As with our other
Schemes, we have abided by the four principles of proportionality,
effectiveness, integrity and transparency and we are of course always open to
suggestions for improvement. These can
be made using the comments box at the end of this Scheme and if provided with
contact details, we will respond to your comments with how we intend to address
the point or points made.
This college has a
long tradition stretching back over 108 years from its foundation as a textile
and mining college in 1899 providing training to meet the demands of local
industry to a now diversified and ever-evolving organisation that aims to meet
the needs of all of its learners and the communities which it serves across a
number of sites.
We aim to be the
college and employer of choice and set the gold standard for all who can
contribute to and benefit from its services, irrespective of their gender or
other irrelevant grounds. We trust that
our founder and benefactor, Andrew Carnegie, would approve of the direction in
which we are steering the college and the societal and economic changes to
which we have adapted. We are therefore
proud of and keen to emulate the values and principles of fairness, justice and
generosity he exemplified in sharing his vision and, in later life, his wealth.
