The SQA provides a blend of training. We can look at training from two perspectives. First, there is training to ensure that all employees are aware of diversity and equality, and secondly, there is training available for underrepresented groups to enable them to progress and develop better throughout their employment.
On the first area, we have a compulsory corporate induction, in which a module on diversity and inclusivity is compulsory; every employee must complete it. The training involves a blend of online learning and a workbook exercise, and employees need to have their training signed off.
We also have compulsory training for our managers, and for anyone who becomes a manager or has been promoted to that level. Again, diversity and equality are part of that. There is a module, followed by a training session in which there is more discussion about how we create an all-inclusive environment.
As the previous panel acknowledged, online module-based learning is a great idea, because it reaches out to people and they can do it as and when they require, and they can refresh their learning. However, it does not give people an opportunity for interaction, which is why we go for both approaches. We also have training for recruitment managers. Every recruitment manager who is going to recruit people should have completed the relevant module, which covers not just equality and diversity but unconscious bias.
Just last year, we introduced a big programme for what we call values-led leadership. The SQA has three main values: that we be trusted, enabling and progressive. We have designed a programme that has been rolled out to all employees. The executive team has had the training, as have the heads of service and managers, and eventually all employees will have received it.
To summarise, the training is about providing psychological safety for everybody, so that everyone can bring their whole self into the workplace. We can then home in on people’s specific and unique talents. It is a bit like comparing a game of chequers with a game of chess. We do not want to play chequers, in which everybody is required to do the same thing in the same way, and to bring the same skills. We want to play chess in which we are able to know what a person’s specific talents are and we can allow them to use those talents.
That ties in with the fair work framework dimensions, which include opportunity and fulfilment. There is a lot of evidence and research to show that if people are able to use their specific skills and do what they are good at, that brings them an element of satisfaction and fulfilment. They will tend to stay with the employer; retention is a pretty good brand that an employer can advertise.
I will mention one final point. The SQA has recently, through Business in the Community Scotland, signed up to the race at work charter. That has very much come on the back of the Black Lives Matter campaign and is quite a big thing, culturally. For starters, we have an executive sponsor—someone from the executive team is allowed to sponsor the initiative. We will then ask our board to commit to zero tolerance of bullying and harassment. Support from the board is quite a powerful element.
The whole intervention is, in effect, focused on managers. It is about giving them opportunities for training so that they are able not only to identify people from minorities, but to see individuals for who they are. That will enable them to see people’s potential and help them to achieve that potential through whatever training and development opportunities we have in the organisation.