JTL steps up its commitment to equality and welfare of apprentices
JTL has announced that it has achieved Gold Standard accreditation for Equality and Diversity.
The Gold Standard recognises JTL as being in the top 10 per cent of ‘committed to equality’ companies nationwide, and JTL is the first work based training provider to achieve this standard on its first application.JTL understands that a commitment to equality and diversity is particularly important when working with apprentices, many of whom represent vulnerable and under represented groups in the Building Services Engineering Sector – an industry perceived as being overwhelmingly staid and male. Having a diverse talent pool to recruit from is particularly important as the industry aims to attract the most able people as apprentices. JTL has embedded activities to address the industry’s uniformity:
– JTL’s regional teams have developed an equality regional action plan to encourage under represented groups into apprenticeship. Activities within the action plans are updated quarterly.
– Deliver presentations in schools to girls and young people from ethnic minority groups to address perceptions about entering the building services engineering sector.
– Conduct female only assessments for women interested in become an apprentice
– Informing potential employers of the benefits of recruiting from a diverse workforce in both a domestic and a commercial market.
Yasmin Damree-Ralph, equality and diversity officer at JTL, said, ‘We are very proud to achieve the prestigious Gold Standard and will be harnessing this to advance our work in promoting equality and diversity – particularly as part of our Apprenticeship Programmes to reach a wider and more diverse audience. This is a great kitemark for us to prove our commitment to equality and diversity and to build upon as we aim to diversify industry for the future.’
Vivienne Duke, CEO of Equality Accreditation Services, added, ‘From the moment we engaged with JTL it was very clear just how committed and genuinely passionate JTL is about equality and diversity in their organisation and the customers/communities they serve. This has been evidenced during our audit visits and employee interviews have confirmed that this commitment is truly embedded across the whole organisation and on a wider basis out to its external stakeholders. A much deserved Gold Standard and JTL should all be incredibly proud of this outstanding achievement.’
