Introduction
Working for Growth, the refreshed
employability strategy makes clear that overcoming barriers to work
is at the heart of employability. People from minority ethnic
groups face many labour market barriers and are a key target group
for employability services.
People from minority ethnic communities will account for half of
the growth in the working age population over the next
decade. It is critical this resource is used
effectively. The Government Economic
Strategy argues ensuring everyone can contribute
fully to the economy will be essential to Scotland's future growth
and prosperity. No one should be denied opportunities because of
their race or ethnicity, their disability, gender, sexual
orientation, age or religion.
All employability services should be concerned about what they
can do to help people from minority ethnic communities enter and
progress in the labour market. As Working for
Growth highlights, Employability Partnerships should
review the effectiveness of their approaches to working with
minority ethnic clients regularly.
This toolkit aims to give employability practitioners
information to do this and to promote and progress racial equality
in their services. It is based on the premise that
employability practitioners already have relevant skills and
experience to enable them to work with minority ethnic clients
effectively. This experience includes:
- working with people who face discrimination and disadvantage,
are distant from the labour market, or have barriers to accessing
mainstream services;
- networking in local communities to engage clients and to access
the support clients may need (such as money advice) to
achieve their employability goals;
- working with employers to make them aware of the difficulties
clients may have and supporting them in work.
Organisation
The toolkit is organised as follows:
- Section 1 highlights key
points in relation to promoting equality.
- Section
2 provides an overview of the labour market issues facing
people from minority ethnic groups.
- Section 3, Section 4, Section
5 and Section 6 provide
information to address the specific issues facing minority ethnic
clients.
- Section 7 provides
further information including useful organisations, further reading
and references.
The tools employability services use should be relevant for all
clients. Examples of tools developed by Bridges
Programmes in Glasgow which is a specialist service can be
accessed on the Employability Learning Network website.
We are very grateful to Bridges for sharing these
resources.