Women who participated in the Elevate – Management & leadership training for women programme -celebrated today the achievements of this 2-year project at the project’s final event at City Guildhall in London. They were joined by numerous guests including Jean Lambert, the London’s Green Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
She said: "Elevate has provided an extremely valuable and positive project in really aiming to meet the needs of women in management. This has fulfilled a need in society and also looked at innovative practice including the environmental dimension, which in my view is essential to any well run organisation. The results and success of the project speaks volumes about women’s ability to lead in the work place. "
Over the past 2 years, Elevate helped over 220 women from across London through training in management and leadership with the ultimate aim of promoting gender equality in the workplace. This led to the achievement of 100 units towards National Vocational qualifications units at Level 3 or 4. Support available also included one-to-one or group coaching. The initiative was particularly successful in reaching out to women from ethnic minorities (69% of participants) and those working for the community and voluntary sector. Additionally, it also included 4 networking events on sustainable development which helped to raise awareness of green issues.
Feedback from participants and findings from the external evaluation have highlighted the project’s success in meeting and exceeding the expectations of women. The large majority of participants felt that the training helped their confidence and will improve their careers prospects. The women’s only approach, the availability of individual coaching as well as childcare and travel bursaries were emphasised as particularly effective elements of Elevate in helping women to overcome barriers to progression at the workplace.
The programme funded by the European Social Fund and the London region Learning and Skills Council was delivered through a partnership between the Women’s Resource Centre (WRC), as lead partner, and AdviceUK, Aspire Training and Coaching, Social Enterprise London, The Innovatory, and Yvonne Field Associates.
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For more information please contact:Morwenna Holland, Media Officertel: 020 7407 6280 or 07813149812 email: media@jeanlambertmep.org.uk www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk
Notes to editors: Jean Lambert: In October 2005 Jean was named MEP 2005 for Justice and Human Rights. Jean was first elected Green Party Member of the European Parliament for London in the 1999 European elections. She was re-elected in 2004. She is one of nine MEPs representing London and one of two UK Green representatives in the European Parliament.
Funding – The Elevate project led by the Women’s Resource Centre was granted £700,000 of European Social Funding under Objective Three (Specification 5.1c) and the Learning and Skills Council during the period January 2005-December 2006. The funding has come through the Pan London co-financing round which is managed by ECOTEC Research & Consulting (www.ecotec.com) on behalf of the Learning & Skills Council in London. For further information about the European Social Fund and the LSC Pan London ESF Objective 3 Programme, please visit: www.esf.gov.uk and www.LondonO3.ecotec.co.uk. To find out more about the LSC Pan London ESF O3 Programme, please contact the Pan London O3 Team within ECOTEC (020 7089 1976; LondonO3@ecotec.co.uk).
Learning & Skills Council- The LSC is responsible for funding and planning education and training for over 16-year-olds in England (excluding higher education). For any media enquiries about the London LSC please contact Ryan Ansah on 0207 9040796 (Ryan.Ansah@lsc.gov.uk).
Elevate Partnership: The Women’s Resource Centre – WRC- is Elevate’s lead partner. WRC is a membership-based, second-tier organisation providing infrastructure support, information and capacity building to voluntary and community organisations working to improve the status of women. Its members work in a wide variety of fields: human rights; LGBT services; BME services; gender equality; domestic violence; mental health; and so on, all having a common working with women, for women.AdviceUK London Region is a voluntary organisation. It is an established provider of management training and management NVQs for the voluntary sector, running its own management NVQ assessment centre. Aspire Training and Coaching was established in 2000 by Samantha Collins, named one of the Top 10 coaches in the UK, by The Independent on Sunday. Aspire’s team of executive coaches have worked closely with many of the most respected companies operating in the UK, and is the only coaching company in the UK that specialises in working with women. The Innovatory has been providing award winning local business support, and highly acclaimed professional new media and management training in London for over 10 years. Yvonne Field Associates is an established consultancy and training company providing public sector clients with high quality services which promote social inclusion, diversity and partnership working. Social Enterprise London promote community, best practice, advocacy and development – working with individuals, organisations and regional government to help them realise their vision. SEL works to promote an inclusive, robust and creative social enterprise community in the capital.
Further information about the project is available at: www.wrc.org.uk