by LAUREN CODLING
TACKLING inequality within employment and education is key to change, the chair of a newly launched government group implemented to address race disparity has said.
Simon Woolley, the director and co-founder of Operation Black Vote, was named the chair of the Race Disparity Advisory group at Downing Street on Monday (19).
It is a £90-million initiative designed to promote racial equality throughout the UK.
The launch came on the same day that prime minister Theresa May announced a programme aiming to tackle inequalities within youth unemployment, which was highlighted in the government’s Race Disparity Audit last year.
It revealed that 16 to 24 year-olds from ethnic minority groups were twice as likely to be unemployed as their white peers, despite having similar qualifications.
Woolley talked about his priorities to Eastern Eye on Monday. “Employment is critical
because from employment, your wellbeing and your housing and the way you can provide for a family is predicated; getting a good and stable job, not a zero-hour contract job. So, employment is key.
“Then of course, education because that is the starting point. But in regards to education,
quite a lot of BAME communities are doing well in education but it still is not translating to good jobs.”
While in Birmingham on Monday, May admitted that a significant number of young people from deprived and ethnic minority backgrounds “[faced] barriers preventing them from entering the world of work”.
May said: “Evidence from the Race Disparity Audit clearly shows that while the educational attainment gap between people of different backgrounds has narrowed over time, this has not been reflected in getting jobs. Talent, ability and hard work should be the only factors affecting a young person’s ability to get on in life, not their background or ethnicity.”
The prime minister added that the programme would help to address the barriers holding some individuals back and ensure they could achieve their full potential.
The scheme, run by the Big Lottery Fund, will be moulded by evidence driven by the
race audit’s outcome. It will offer young people the chance to work directly with educators
and youth and community organisations who will then consider how their skills can benefit local communities and businesses.
The programme will also hold workshops with young people to gather evidence about the challenges they face while applying for jobs after they have gained an education qualification.
Woolley told Eastern Eye that although he was encouraged by the government’s efforts
to tackle racial inequality, there was still a long way to go.
“I’m always impatient for change,” he said. “I always want more from government and big businesses, but I think the prime minister is showing true leadership in regard to tackling these persistent inequalities and in the way she sent a message out to ministers that they need to explain these racial inequalities or change.
“These are very early days but, in my opinion, we are going in the right direction.”
The Race Disparity advisory group, which has been given two years to begin the project,
will help to “challenge, steer and support” government departments to develop interventions to tackle disparities which were revealed in the audit.
Members of the group include Arun Batra (Ernst & Young), Jeremy Crook (Black Training and Enterprise Group), Carol Lake (JP Morgan), Anne Foster (Sony), Samuel Kasumu (Elevation Network), and Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, author of Race in the Workplace.
Talking about his motivation behind taking the position of chair, Woolley said he wanted change and wanted to make sure it happened quickly. Calling himself a civil rights activist, he hoped he argued in the same vein as other equality campaigners such as Martin Luther King and Malcom X.
“Once it is in your DNA that you want to change our world, you look to every opportunity
to make that change,” he said.
“We want to give people not just hope but a blueprint on how that hope can be translated into a job and into equality and into prosperity,” Woolley added.
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event