LGBT perception survey for all learners and staff - last chance to complete

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We want to find out if there are differences in the perceptions and experiences of learners and staff who have different sexual orientations and gender identities.You can support this important research by going to http://www.cvent.com/d/r4qbx6 and telling us about your perceptions and experiences of sexual orientation and/or gender identity and by passing this link http://www.cvent.com/d/r4qbx6 on to your learners/colleagues and contacts. The more responses we receive to the survey, the more useful our findings will be and the more likely our recommendations will be taken seriously and result in change.

The survey, at http://www.cvent.com/d/r4qbx6 closes on Friday 16th January 2015, so this is your last chance to take part. We want responses from learners of all sexual orientation and gender identities in all types of post-school education in the UK that is not higher education. This includes general and specialist FEdefinition colleges, Specialist Designated Institutions, Adult and Community Learning, Offender Learning, Work Based Larning and Apprenticeships). And we want responses from staff of all sexual orientation and gender identities in all kinds of roles and types of post-school education in the UK, including higher education. 

Monitoring matters

Finn McGoldrick, NUS LGBT Officer (Women’s Place) and Sky Yarlett, NUS LGBT Officer (Open Place) describe the importance of student monitoring in their blog: Real education change for LGBT students.

And, in her blog, 'Counting the gays in the villageCarol Towle, UNISON national LGBT equality officer said

"Workforce monitoring is now well established across the post-school education sector. There has been some reluctance to include questions about people’s sexual orientation.  But the arguments in favour are stacking up and should not be ignored."

This survey matters

The lack of good LGBT monitoring and reporting in the further aand higher education sectors means this survey matters even more than you might think. For all of us.

The EU LGBT survey (2014) found a fifth of UK respondents felt personally discriminated against at work in the past 12 months, because of their sexual orientation. The report on Trans persons, or those whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex assigned them at birth, face frequent discrimination, harassment and violence across the European Union (EU) today. The study found the country with the highest rate of respondents who felt discriminated against or harassed because of being perceived as trans in the last 12 months, by EU Member State was the UK (65%). 

We are especially keen to get a high FE workforce response to this NUS/Forum survey because of the continuing lack of useful national data and the recent worrying analysis in the Education and Training Foundation's workforce data reports published in September 2014. Whether implicit or unintentional the report in effect victim blames LGBT staff for the low response rate by ACLdefinition staff: 

“Disclosed data reveals a very similar picture to the previous year, with less than one per cent combined identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual, and the remaining staff identifying as heterosexuals. “

and renders that response invisible in the overall report.  

 

NIACEdefinition is supporting the NUS and the Forum for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Equality to explore how sexual orientation and/or gender identity shape learners' and staff experiences of learning and working post-school education. If you have any questions please contact Charlotte Robey at [email protected] or on 0116 204 2845.