Turning our planned physical event into a virtual workshop.

How does the language we use in our marketing, our job specifications, our curriculum, our teaching materials, impact on Diversity and Inclusion?

Can the words and phrases we use make job candidates, students, lecturers feel that the Tech Sector isn't for people like them? Can language reinforce outdated stereotypes and inhibit the diversity of the talent pool?

This online forum will identify the touch points in the talent pipeline where people experience written language, and understand how the use of inappropriate language can inhibit engagement and sense of belonging.

The Forum will gather and share practice from participants, and will contribute to the production of an Institute of Coding good practice guide.

This Forum is for people who produce any written content that interfaces with prospective or existing digital students or employees, and who want to improve diversity and inclusion. We especially want to involve people who have experience of changing language in their communication and have lessons to share.

We are asking for all participants to complete the following questions, as these will form the content of our discussion:

Q1. What language excludes people?

What examples of language have you seen that have been poor?

Q2. Where do people experience Language that impacts their decision making and sense of belonging in Digital education and employment. (mapping touch points)

Q3. Best (and worst) practice words, terms and descriptions for people, groups, activities

Is jargon a necessary evil? How is it being used - good and bad example.

Q4. What tools and resources have you used to improve your use of language?

To open the session, Bob Clift, The Tech Partnership, will provide a brief overview of Language Matters.

If you would like to share your work in advance of the Forum, or recommend resources to share in the Forum, please contact the organiser.

You can view our Wakelet resources we will continue to build this resource beyond the Forum event.

Spaces are limited so will be treated on a first come first service basis of those who complete the questions to their fullest capacity.

The IoC Privacy Statement

The Institute of Coding (IoC) is a partnership of over 30 universities in England all working hard to address the digital skills gap. This course/event is part of that work, and we want to know about the people attending so that we can find out whether what we are trying to achieve is having an impact.

Your personal data will be collected and stored by Manchester Metropolitan University in accordance with their data policy. As Manchester Metropolitan University are a member of the IoC, an element of your data will then be shared with us. All personal and identifying details will be removed before this data is shared so that all we get are statistics to show how we’re doing against our targets.

The data we collect from you as part of this project will be passed to the Office for Students to allow them to conduct further research and evaluation of the activities funded as part of the IoC project, including combining with data from similar work at other Universities and Colleges. These data may be linked to other data that they hold about you including prior, current or future educational records and records on earnings and employment.

Thank you for your support.

Please email c.leigh-monk@mmu.ac.uk with any queries.

Language as a Barrier - a virtual Institute of Coding Forum