Upwardly mobile: recruiting without bias
Date and time
Location
Marks & Clerk
15 Fetter Lane London EC4A 1BW United KingdomDescription
IP Inclusive and its Careers in Ideas initiative are delighted to invite you to a panel discussion and workshop on socio-economic diversity and recruitment. The event is on 12 June 2019, from 4 to 6 pm, followed by light refreshments and networking, and is being held at Marks & Clerk's new offices in Fetter Lane.
At the IP Inclusive annual meeting in January 2019, Julie Barrett (PurposiveStep – Business & Career Consulting for those in or related to Intellectual Property) suggested that a neglected area of awareness-raising amongst our profession has been that of an apparent bias towards/preponderance of people from relatively well-off backgrounds and high-ranked schools/universities, regardless of innate ability and potential to become a superlative IP professional.
So, Andrea Brewster (IP Inclusive leader), Sheila Wallace (Partner, Marks & Clerk) and Julie have formed a small working group focussed on this area (see here). Our 12 June event is aimed at both awareness-raising, and providing ideas and guidance to address the issues raised. An approximate outline is below; keep an eye out for further details:
4 -5 pm: Panel discussion, led by Julie Barrett, with additional panel members chosen from those who have experienced and overcome bias against or difficulties in their backgrounds, such as class, accent, educational pathway, expectations, sense of belonging, etc. These panellists will be from a variety of IP-related occupations.
5 - 5.45 pm: Workshop with facilitated group discussions – to suggest ways of countering the difficulties highlighted in the panel discussion, especially those focused on improving the recruitment process in the IP-related professions. We will share the key outcomes of these discussions with the wider IP Inclusive community.
5.45 - 6 pm: Summing up and next steps by Andrea Brewster.
6 pm: Informal discussions, networking and light refreshments.
The working group is very grateful for the generosity of Marks & Clerk in providing the venue and facilities to enable this event to take place.
Organised by
IP Inclusive is an initiative devoted to promoting equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing throughout the UK's IP professions. Our activities cover four areas: awareness-raising upstream of the professions; best practice charter and accreditation schemes; diversity training; and support.
We aim to provide cost-effective and accessible training, discussion and networking events for IP professionals in diversity-related issues. We also encourage our member organisations and Charter signatories to incorporate diversity into their own CPD and training programmes, particularly those focused on commercial and personal skills training, to ensure that diversity stays on the agenda for the decision-makers within our professions.