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News Release from: National Construction College | Subject: Diversity in the workplace
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 27 July 2005
NCC and diversity in the workplace
National Construction College launched 'diversity in the workplace' pilot course.
The National Construction College (NCC), in association with ACAS (Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service) launched a 'diversity in the workplace' pilot course in Ferrybridge, North Yorkshire, on Thursday 14th July The Diversity Module is one of the first courses of its kind to focus on diversity in the workplace as a 'business need' rather than a legal or ethical requirement
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 19 Oct 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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The course is designed to help employers understand the clear benefits of recruiting people from a wide range of backgrounds - including women and black and Asian people.
NCC aims to incorporate the most important and successfully delivered elements of the pilot course into a new 'diversity module' to be integrated into all major existing courses at NCC.
The module aims to help address some of the industry's skills shortages by demonstrating that not recruiting from a larger, more diverse pool is a luxury that construction can no longer afford.
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David Boydon, Director of NCC, commented: "It is difficult to imagine the sheer scale of 234,000 recruits needed in construction between now and 2007".
"The construction industry needs to be seen as one where everyone feels valued and able to succeed".
"NCC is working with the industry to drive this forward with new training courses designed to enhance awareness and introduce 'workforce diversity' within businesses".
Combined with the need to recruit and retain 88,000 people every year until 2007 (Skills Foresight Report published by CITB-ConstructionSkills), the construction industry needs to look beyond its established boundaries for new recruits if it is to continue to succeed.
NCC is therefore pro-actively addressing this with its new training course designed to enhance awareness of the opportunities that could be made available by introducing 'workforce diversity' within businesses.
According to NCC, logic predicts that by accessing people from diverse backgrounds, businesses are not merely fulfilling a legal requirement, but providing a major business benefit.
As Britain's population make-up becomes more diverse, marketing audiences also become more varied.
Therefore by continuing to follow traditional marketing routes, businesses are likely to become more and more isolated in who they reach, and employ thereafter.
In order to maximise company exposure and attract a more diverse audience, companies need to move away from traditional marketing routes and proactively introduce new recruitment techniques so that largely untapped audiences can be reached.
Once a diverse workforce is set in place, the results could bring enormous benefits to companies not only in the construction industry, but across the board.
For example, such a workforce can help to the industry bridge an increasing skills gap by opening opportunities to a greater range of people.
This in turn could encourage a different approach to a variety of challenges, which may result in improved best practice approaches to areas such as communication and general problem solving.
NCC leads by example and already benefits from an ethnic mix which is pro-actively encouraged.
The college aims to significantly increase the current mix with the help of this module.
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