This event will provide a lot of food for thought if you are a HR professional, a hiring manager, or just a team player who cares about their team being diverse and representative of society and the audiences that your organisation serves.

The talk will be delivered by Amin Rahman, an academic at Ravensbourne University London. It will cover topics such as:

• Barriers to opportunities that arise from different interpretations of skill shortages
• Why businesses and teams should prioritise how their job posts are positioned and how far they reach
• If equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) can be improved at different stages and in various talent sources: education, training, recruitment, volunteering.

This talk focuses on the creative and technology sectors but is relevant to EDI across organisations who require staff with digital skills.

Questions to ask yourself beforehand:

Are modern practices and legislation serving as an adequate launchpad for accelerated change?

In what way does EDI in an organisation concern those who are not involved in hiring?

Running Order

15.45 - Doors Open

16.00 - Introduction

16.05 - Main Talk

16.50 - Conclusion

16.55 - Food, Drinks and Networking

17.30 - End

Details

The talk will cover the aforementioned topics and also use the below structure to help stimulate discussion and audience involvement:

"The pieces of the puzzle"

This segment looks at making a case for EDI and forces that support or obstruct it. A key takeaway here is to understand how to nurture the best environment for EDI.

"Skills shortages also play a part"

Recruitment is becoming a challenging space. A new generation of talent with different and vocal world views, a culture mismatch between business profit and societal ethics and so on.

Whilst there are recruitment habits in selecting candidates for their skill, those same habits could become outdated in some ways.

"Cultures and attitudes"

This segment has a sociological backdrop to give credence to some of the barriers that persist in the creative and tech sectors because sometimes, people's perceptions and views are limiting - it is time for a lot of important questions and a time for people to have courage in pursuing the answers.

The Speaker

Amin has worked for over a decade in organisations ranging from fast-paced market-entry startups to established or pivoting global corporates.

After a very diverse set of years in the creative and technology sectors, often with direct collaboration with company founders, Amin has seen the business ethos behind the creative and tech sectors that is often missing in today's education.

Amin has also seen first-hand the many new routes into these industries that were not previously available. He is therefore passionately encouraging people in work to explore what creative and technology skills mean for their careers and their passion. He has built Ravensbourne's selection of OCN-accredited courses to achieve this aim.

In contrast to his own Masters in Computer Science, which (to this day) he feels is a rather time-consuming way to go about things, the Dagile courses he lectures on are vocation centric thereby focusing on work-ready skills.

This event was organised jointly by Ravensbourne University London and Peabody Housing Association.