Black Leadership Initiative

The Black Leadership Initiative (BLI) was established in 2002 following the publication of the report of the Commission for Black* Staff in Further Education. Supported by the Network for Black Managers and the Association of Colleges and with funding initially from the Learning and Skills Council and more recently by the DFES/Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL), its brief was clear: to introduce practical measures that would improve the career development opportunities for BME tutors and managers working in the sector.

Black-led and now housed within the Network for Black Professionals (formerly the Network for Black Managers), the BLI is committed to working with sector partners to achieve change in the equality and diversity profile of the sector.

The Message from Government

The Government is providing clear leadership to the sector to transform the profile of senior staff in colleges and to achieve a more representative workforce.

The Foster report into the future role of further education colleges in 2005 noted the ‘marked under-representation of black and minority ethnic groups in governance roles and top management positions’ and called for more work to be done to ‘better reflect the population in which colleges are operating’. The FE White Paper ‘Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances’ (2006) commented that ‘Too many minority groups continue to be under-represented, especially at senior levels, and face barriers to progression in the sector’.

The Government has backed-up its commitment to achieving greater equality and diversity in the workforce of the Learning and Skills sector by

• Ensuring that all BLI and Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) management and leadership programmes
  are free to BME participants through the subsidy scheme
• Insisting that diversity competence modules are mandatory on all Centre for Excellence in Leadership programmes, including the qualification for new Principals
• Encouraging all providers to adopt the Race Equality in Employment Standard

"Workforce training, such as that developed through the Black Leadership Initiative needs to become more widespread"
Sir Andrew Foster, 2005

• Fewer than 2% of all college principals are from Black Minority Ethnic (BME) communities
• Probably about 3.5% of senior college managers are BME
• Approximately 6% of staff in colleges are BME
• BME students in the college sector account for c.20% of all learners
• Approximately 60% of students in FE colleges in London are drawn from BME communities
• Ethnic minorities comprise about 8% of the UK population
• By 2009, half the growth in the working age population will be drawn from black minority ethnic communities
  

‘Too many minority groups continue to be under-represented, especially at senior levels, and face barriers to progression in the sector’.
The FE White Paper ‘Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances’ (2006)