• Innovation
• Empowerment
• Equal Opportunities
• Transnational Working
• Partnership
• Mainstreaming.

Equal Themes

EQUAL in Great Britain operates in thematic fields defined in the context of the four pillars of the European Employment Strategy (EES):

1. Employability
2. Entrepreneurship
3. Adaptability
4. Equal Opportunities

In addition to these themes, the programme supports a further theme of activities to help the social and vocational integration of asylum seekers.

Throughout those themes the strategy for EQUAL aims to:

• ensure that activities principally benefit those subject to the main forms of discrimination and inequality and each thematic field will be fully accessible to all such groups
• ensure that the promotion of equality between women and men is integral to the thematic fields in all four pillars as well as being targeted through specific actions in the fourth pillar
• the ideal of improving the supply of and demand for quality jobs with a future
• encourage the effective use of existing mechanisms (for example those that exist for social dialogue) to improve awareness of the factors leading to discrimination, inequality and exclusion in connection with the labour market.

Theme A

Summary of Theme A

Facilitating access and return to the labour market for those who have difficulty in being integrated or re-integrated into a labour market which must be open to all.

Strategic Objectives

1. To combat discrimination faced by individuals and promote equality in the workplace
2. To test support mechanisms to help target groups integrate/re-integrate into the labour market

Equal priority

Employability

Development Partnerships

There are 24 DPs working within Theme A.



Theme B

Summary of Theme B

Opportunities to promote potential for ethnic minorities within the world of work.

Strategic Objectives

1. To improve the employment prospects for ethnic minorities

Equal priority

Employability

Development Partnerships

There are 9 DPs working within Theme B.

Theme B – Employability

The strategic objective of Theme B is to ‘tackle patterns of discrimination and inequality in the labour market and improve the employment prospects for ethnic minorities.’

GB Development Partnerships (DPs) focus on:

• Accessibility to training and employment for ethnic minority communities.
• Developing mainstream employment opportunities for ethnic minorities in the creative media sector.
• Promoting entrepreneurism.
• Combating and eliminating workplace discrimination.

Summary of Theme B

• Unemployment rate amongst Black and Asian people is 11.3%, as oppose to 4.4% amongst the White population. The General Household Survey has reported that unemployment rates have got worse for second generation British born descendents of immigrants.
• People from ethnic minority groups are more than twice as likely to be unemployed than white people and are less likely to reach senior positions at work.
• Research shows that people from minority ethnic backgrounds experience greater difficulty in finding and sustaining employment.
• Minority Ethnic groups are not homogenous and experience discrimination to differing levels.
• 19% of ethnic minorities believe that they have personally been refused a job for racial or religious reasons.
• Ethnic Minorities have fewer qualifications than their white counterparts. Qualification levels also differ between ethnic groups.
• Large differences are evident in unemployment rates between white and ethnic minority men.

Britain’s ethnic minority population is mainly situated in specific regions of the UK. These include areas such as Greater London, the Midlands and northern industrial towns and cities like Bradford.

2001 Census data shows:

• The minority ethnic populations were concentrated in the large urban centres. Approximately 45% of the total minority ethnic population lived in the London region – comprising 29% of all residents.
• After London came West Midlands with 13% of the minority ethnic population, South East at 8%, North West at 8% and Yorkshire and Humber at 7%.
• Black Africans, Black Caribbeans and the Bangladeshi group generally lived within the London were more dispersed.
• The ethnic minority population grew by 48% between 1991 and 2001, from 3.1 million to 4.6 million.
• The ethnic minority population is relatively young. 45% of the ethnic minority is under 25 years old, compared to only a third of the White population.
• In relation to employment rates for men, Indians had the highest employment rate (73%) and Bangladeshis had the lowest (55%), compared with 80% for White men.
• For women from ethnic minority groups with higher qualifications, Black Carribeans had the highest employment rate (84%), followed by Indian women and those from Other Asian groups, both at 80%, compared with 85% for White women.
• On the whole, unemployment rates for ethnic minorities are on average two to three times higher than those of white communities.
  

Theme C

Summary of Theme C

Opportunities to promote potential for ethnic minorities within the world of work.

Strategic Objectives

1. To improve the employment prospects for ethnic minorities

Equal priority

Employability

Development Partnerships

There are 9 DPs working within Theme B.



Theme D

Summary of Theme D

Strengthening the social economy (the third sector), in particular the services of interest to the community, with a focus on improving the quality of jobs.

Strategic Objectives

1. To develop a common understanding of the way in which the social economy can encourage labour market integration

Equal priority

Entrepreneurship

Development Partnerships

There are 8 DPs working within Theme D.



Theme E

Summary of Theme E

Strengthening the social economy (the third sector), in particular the services of interest to the community, with a focus on improving the quality of jobs.

Strategic Objectives

1. To develop a common understanding of the way in which the social economy can encourage labour market integration

Equal priority

Entrepreneurship

Development Partnerships

There are 8 DPs working within Theme D.



Theme F

Summary of Theme F

Supporting the adaptability of firms and employees to structural economic change and the use of information technology and other new technologies.

Strategic Objectives

1. To promote inclusive working practices and adaptability including the work/life balance and use of ICT

Equal priority

Adaptability

Development Partnerships

There are 5 DPs working within Theme F.



Theme H

Summary of Theme H

Reducing gender gaps and supporting job desegregation.

Strategic Objectives

1. To identify ways of reducing the gender pay gap and supporting job desegregation

Equal priority

Equal Opportunities

Development Partnerships

There are 4 DPs working within Theme H.



Theme I

Helping the integration of asylum-seekers. Depending on the official status of the asylum seeker - an extremely complex area, with variations between Member States — assistance may be for new ways of helping to access the labour market, or to provide training for unsuccessful asylum seekers prior to their leaving the country.

Summary of Theme I

Helping the integration of asylum seekers.

Strategic Objectives

1. To develop an employment strategy which is appropriate to the needs of asylum seekers in the UK

Any activity to be supported under Equal must add to rather than duplicate the work funded by the European Refugee Fund and will focus on the NASS dispersal areas.

The British Equal Community Initiative Plan stresses the need to ensure that tailored provision is made available along the continuum from asylum seeker to refugee. It is important that any activities funded through Equal are developed as a means to enable asylum seekers to play a more active role in society and to enable those who become refugees to gain more rapid transition to the labour market.

Equal priority

Asylum seekers

Development Partnerships

There are 3 DPs working within Theme I.