As the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations, we develop relationships with people from a wide range of backgrounds. Engaging positively with the richness of this diversity is central to what we do and in line with our core values.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and inclusion, and to positive action to promote this. We believe that an Equal Opportunity Policy helps to ensure that there is no unjustified discrimination in the recruitment, retention, training and development of staff on the basis of gender including transgender, marital status (which includes civil partnerships), sexual orientation, religion and belief, political opinion, ethnicity/race, work pattern, age, disability or HIV/AIDS status, socio-economic background, spent convictions, trade union activity or membership, on the basis of having or not having dependants, or any other irrelevant grounds.  We also believe that an Equal Opportunity Policy benefits employees and potential employees, partners, clients and customers and helps achieve dignity at work, as well as contributing to providing the best possible services to all stakeholders.

We do not have separate policies to cover different areas of equality.  It has a primary but not exclusive focus on 7 equality grounds which are; age, disability, gender and transgender, race/ethnicity, religion and belief and culture, sexual orientation and work-life balance.

We have identified five organisational core values, namely, valuing people, integrity, mutuality, creativity and professionalism.  These govern our organisational culture, the decisions we make and how we behave internally and in our dealings with clients, customers and suppliers.  They underpin how we implement equality of opportunity and how we value diversity.

We promote our Equal Opportunity Policy through our Diversity Strategy and through a commitment to mainstreaming equality and diversity principles and practices and monitoring our progress.