I recently attended the annual Tes FE Awards. I, like many other attendees, looked at the winners on stage, as they took their picture to celebrate and capture well-deserved accomplishments, achievements and aspirations. It was an incredible moment, worthy of photographing.

But in the midst of all the glitz, glamour and glory, I could not help but feel slightly isolated. I looked across the length of the stage and realised that not one of the beaming faces looked like me. Not a single person posing picture-perfect reflected my ethnic identity.

I don’t think this was premeditated, but I still found it disconcerting, as inclusivity in FE is a huge deal. The sector serves a vast array of people with different experiences, backgrounds and origins, be it staff or students. The lack of multiculturalism representing the various FE providers nationally made me question the progress that I thought FE had made in regards to widening the participation of black, Asian and minority-ethnic (BAME) staff.

The Education and Training Foundation’s (ETF) 2015 workforce data highlights where the sector stands on ethnic diversity. Nationally, only 4 per cent of staff are of Asian descent and 3.5 per cent are of African/Caribbean origin. These figures are slightly lower for senior managers, with 2.5 per cent of those in leadership positions originating from a minority background. Further statistics from the workforce data show that 8.2 per cent of FE learners are of Asian origin and 6.4 per cent are African/Caribbean.

Sadly these statistics show discrepancies between the make-up of the FE workforce and the ethnic profile of learners.

Problems still exist

Why should this be an area of interest to us? Well, many problems still exist around the concerns of equality and diversity for ethnic minorities. The main issue in our sector is not the equality side of inclusion. Many would agree that the general ethos of treating people equally, regardless of origin, is respected and any disregard of that is recognised as being unacceptable and intolerable antisocial behaviour. The Equality Act 2010 paved the way for this to be possible. But it is the lack of diversity that is still of major concern - it is dissimilar to treating people equally.

As a black British woman enjoying a rewarding and satisfying career in the FE sector, I have experienced occasions where opportunities have appeared inaccessible through the lack of diversity. I can recall numerous occasions where I have attended a job interview only to find the panel in no way reflected my ethnic persuasion. This led to feelings of isolation and exclusion.

Equal but not diverse

I can also bring to mind the various times I have attended FE teaching, learning and good-practice conferences at which none of the keynote speakers came from a non-white British background. The events told me that there are still many hurdles to climb and conversations worth having to ensure minorities can participate.

Both of these experiences inadvertently gave out the message that, in the midst of extensive planning and preparation, there is an absence of forethought on the importance of multiculturalism and making such roles accessible to ambitious potential participants.

Patrice Miller is a specialist English teacher at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College. She tweets @patricemiller_

This is an edited version of an article in the 19 May edition of Tes. Subscribers can read the full story here. To subscribe, click here. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here. Your new-look Tes magazine is available at all good newsagents.

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