As part of our ongoing commitment to improving lives through skills development, SFJ Awards is proud to have signed the Federation of Awarding Bodies’ (FAB) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion pledge. We are in the process of planning what this pledge means for our organisation, our products and services, and our employees moving forward, as we continue to make EDI a reality for our centres and learners.
As the lead FAB director for EDI, Managing Director Candace Miller explains how SFJ Awards will continue to build on the great work already undertaken by Deborah Hoggett, Qualifications and Assessments Product Manager, and by our parent company The Workforce Development Trust.
Candace was directly involved in the development of the EDI pledge and comments:
“As the FAB lead board director for EDI, I chair the EDI Advisory Group, which developed the FAB EDI Action Plan, and underpins FAB’s commitment to working with partners across the education and training ecosystem to build a fairer and more inclusive culture. The Action Plan is built around 3 key principles: leading the awarding and assessment sector with accountability to improve equity, diversity and inclusion in the education and skills system; building a diverse and inclusive awarding and assessment workforce; championing equity, diversity and inclusion in our educational outputs (qualifications and assessment materials).
“The group consists of FAB member organisations plus representatives from partner organisations including the Association of Colleges, the Education and Training Foundation and others. A key promise made in the FAB Action Plan is to encourage our awarding organisation and end point assessment organisation members to improve equity, diversity and inclusion through their individual efforts. Many have made great progress on this; others are just getting underway. All FAB members have been invited to sign up to the pledge to show their own commitment to this important topic.
“As an organisation that is deeply committed to providing the best experience for the learners who take our qualifications, and the apprentices for whom we provide end-point assessment, SFJ Awards is proud to have been one of the first to sign up to the FAB EDI pledge. We fundamentally believe that equity of access to education and training, and the unprejudiced recognition of skills, knowledge and behaviours gained, has to be a right for all learners, whatever their age, personal characteristics or circumstances. We therefore work with employers, training providers and others to ensure that the processes we follow, and the materials we produce are inclusive, fair for all and reflective of the communities we serve.”
If you’d like to receive updates about our ongoing EDI changes following this pledge, sign up to our newsletter: https://sfjawards.com/sfj-awards-mailing-list/
