Skills to Manage
Project Meeting
Project Description
This project will deliver higher level technical and management skills training to key staff in SMEs across Lancashire with provision mapped against higher level technical and management qualifications and based on an analysis of business and individual needs.The target group for this intervention comprise employers and employees of SMEs.(Small and Medium Enterprises)
Employees of SMEs will fall into a wide variety of sub groups and within the sub-groups there will be considerable variation. Official classifications use categorisations such as disability or BME but within these categories there is such a wide diversity as to render any approach that does not recognise intra group diversity meaningless.
People with a disability might have a learning disability, a specific learning difficulty, an acquired physical disability, a sensory disability, a limitation caused by poor mental health or a medical condition preventing them from taking part in certain activities. All of these sub categories have a range of levels of severity and this in turn is modified by the attitude and approach of the individual experiencing the disability.
To overcome this wide range of intra category variation we respond to individual need rather than assumptions of need based on category. We put great stress on identifying individual goals needs and barriers prior to an individual being involved in project activity through the creation of a detailed individual action plan.
We are sensitive to both the broad issues confronting individuals who have certain characteristics and to the statistical data that shows the average level of disadvantage experienced by members of the group.
In broad terms we will respond to :
- The needs of women where studies (particularly Cabinet Office Women’s Unit research) show they can tend to suffer disadvantage through lack of prior management experience, the prejudice of some male managers, the relatively low status of the occupations/ roles within organisations where they are predominantly employed (administration for example rather than management) and through business support agencies failing to recognise the value of part time enterprise (in which women are disproportionately represented). Within our society women are still the prime carers within families in relation to child, dependent and elder care and as such confront barriers related to broken career patterns, the effects of part-time working on perceptions of capability and the need to have constraints around work patterns.
- Members of BME groups the observation that the level of intra group variation is as great as the level of inter group variation is equally valid. Members of different ethnic heritage groups are perceived differently and exhibit very different patterns in relation, for example, to educational involvement and success. The Consortium and its constituent colleges has developed close working relationships with a wide range of organisations representing BME groups and individual including the Ethnic Business Foundation, the Asian Business Federation and faith groups across Lancashire.
- Barriers that individuals face may be the result of prejudice but may also emerge from a lack of sensitivity and flexibility in the "dominant" culture to the needs that arise from religious observance. The Consortium and its members are aware of many of the barriers that exist for this group and have demonstrated sensitivity through action relating to scheduling of activities, choices of venues, and responsiveness to the need to produce materials in a form/language appropriate to the target group and so on.
- Disability as we observe above disability has a huge variety of forms and we resist the inclination to stereotype. We are conscious however that we must make training materials and venues available to the widest variety of individuals and, accordingly, we make training available in accessible DDA compliant environments and will utilise IT/ITC support wherever it would be an advantage to the individual. The beneficiaries recruited will be both male and female and may well have a background from a particular ethnic heritage. These characteristics demand that we design the programme in such a way as to provide a level of flexibility both in design and delivery.
Therefore in response to these perceptions and barriers we demonstrate our responsiveness by adopting training methods and content which are flexible, individually responsive and which promote equality within the workplace.
The training will be arranged in locations which are fully accessible for people with disabilities and we will ensure access to enabling IT/ICT technology to compensate for any particular visual and hearing deficit. As far as is possible wherever training takes place outside working hours it will be arranged at a time designed to be "family friendly" so that responsibilities of individuals in relation to family care can be easily managed. We have identified also that materials utilised must be appropriate in language, level and layout to individuals drawn from a variety of cultures/sub cultures.
We anticipate that for the most part the training will be delivered in small freestanding units (no longer than 2 to 3 hrs) with support materials available to participants in the form of hard copy materials and/or accessed via IT/ICT. This allows us both the facility to respond to constraints but also to be pro-active in delivering training that responds to individual preferences.
“All the activities described on this website are supported by European Social Fund, funded via Lancashire Learning and Skills Council or Government Office North West, or are funded by the North West Development Agency”
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