Vikki Miller reports on a homelessness charity tackling the absence of black senior managers in the organisation

When the Human resources team at homelessness charity Broadway realised there wasn’t a single black senior manager in the organisation, they knew it was time to take action.

So they decided to set up a management development scheme in partnership with Positive Action Training Highway, a not-for-profit skills development and lifelong-learning agency that focuses on the under-representation and inequalities of black and minority ethnic groups in management.

The scheme, which was launched in January, gives BME junior managers already working at Broadway the chance to study for a diploma in management. This gives them the qualifications, confidence and skills to apply for senior managerial positions.

Richard Banks, the training and development manager at Broadway, says: “We wanted to level the playing field and provide a positive action initiative to empower our BME staff. It’s a confidence-building measure for the junior managers as well as an investment for Broadway.”

A crucial aspect of the project is the participants’ contact with external mentors – experienced middle managers from other housing associations. They meet every month to assess and review how the scheme is going.

The studying is quite intensive but I am getting the tools
I need to become who I want to be

Gloria Kainja, day centre team leader

Two of Broadway’s junior managers, Jummai Afolabi, a caretakers’ coordinator, and Gloria Kainja, a day centre team leader, are the scheme’s first participants. They attend a day-release course at Croydon College once a fortnight.

The course, which lasts 12 months, leads to an internationally recognised diploma in management, accredited by exam awarding bodies Edexcel and London Qualifications.

Students study all areas of management, from finance to marketing to organisational development.

Kainja has been working at Broadway for three years and wants to stay with the organisation when the scheme is over. She says: “The studying is quite intensive but I’m getting the tools I need to become who I want to be.”

Source

Housing Today