Background
The Agender Partnership has drawn partners from the voluntary, community, public and private sectors including Primary Care Trusts, public authorities, Sure Start programmes, children’s centres, information, advice and guidance networks, local businesses and business brokers.
Aims
The Agender Partnership set out to promote positive images of people in non-stereotypical jobs. A key aim of the Agender Partnership has been to help local women and young women to aspire to higher-level careers not traditionally associated with women’s employment. The partnership did this by:
- developing support centres that combine family support (childcare, child and adult health services, social service support, etc.) with advice about jobs and careers
- offering training delivered by advisers who are expert in higher-level jobs and non-traditional careers
- working with employers and intermediaries to identify where women are under-represented in the workplace and to develop positive action strategies
- developing new routes into careers using learning and qualifications.
Objectives
The DP has focused on centres for family support and information, advice and guidance services in areas of significant deprivation within the Birmingham and Solihull areas, some of which contain high levels of minority ethnic groups or lone or teenage parents.
The DP has been working with employers and intermediaries (e.g. recruitment hubs, developers) in a number of settings. These include redevelopment brokers who are active in Birmingham and Solihull, New Super-Hospital hub (University Hospital), DiverCity (positive action group for the Professional and Financial sector), Construction Employment Alliance, and the Public Sector Compact.
The DP has been building new routes into careers not generally thought open to women and has been actively involving public sector planning and funding bodies in developing the solutions to gender inequality. The methodology has been to invite innovative project proposals from partners to deliver programmes and services that will pilot methods of redressing job segregation in sectors such as women into construction (in a variety of guises), women entrepreneurs, access to HE and and higher earnings in early years management (for children’s centre staff), film and TV production and engineering.
The Agender DP has also been looking at issues surrounding men into childcare and health care occupations, working with the Children’s Information Bureau in Birmingham and the local PCTs.
Target groups
- Women and men in non-stereotyped jobs in areas of deprivation
- BME groups
- Unemployed people
- Lone parents
