Having in mind the current challenges we all now face due to COVID-19 outbreaks, and the way it changed dramatically the way we live and work, the Diversity@Work partners gathered some learnings from Diversity Charter Signatories on how to keep an inclusive culture in place and take care of everyone´s needs. This manual comprises information about current work trends, advice on measures organisations can adopt and examples on the way many organisations across EU are reacting to ensure fair and equal opportunities for all employees, show their commitment to global health as well as to take care of local communities.

We hope this new resource is an added value for all organisations: now and in future crises.

Among others, our partners at Fundación Diversidad | Promotor en España del Charter Europeo de la Diversidad (fundaciondiversidad.com) and Diversity charter – Forum Odpowiedzialnego Biznesu (odpowiedzialnybiznes.pl) have made excellent contributions to our manual.

The PDF document is available in English and can be previewed and downloaded here:

In order to ensure the dissemination of the Diversity@work Bended Learning course on Diversity and Inclusion, a training of trainers (TOT) course was conducted in three online sessions for fourteen trainers representing 12 organisations. This course was organized by AKF-PORTUGAL and led by Carla Calado and Mia Wyszynski. It was designed to increase the confidence level of participants to conduct diversity and inclusion trainings within their organizations. 

The course had 9 hours in total, divided into three days between 18th June and 2nd July 2021. In each session, different parts of the face-to-face session were covered, an introduction to AKF´s Blended Learning platform was made, several tools to facilitate online sessions were presented and tested, and several concepts of diversity and inclusion were defined, analyzed and discussed. Practical and relevant examples were provided, and participants’ views were discussed. Also, in each session, special time was devoted to questions and answers.  

Besides that, the advantages and disadvantages of a Blended Learning format were discussed, as well as for the online synchronous option versus a in presence training session. A role play exercise was conducted, to train how to respond to delicate and challenging discussions that may arise during a training session. 

TOT Portugal session 3

Between each session, participants were invited to share their experience regarding prejudice, discrimination and positive inclusion stories. These stories will increase each participant “D&I library” and can be very useful in future trainings to illustrate the concepts and unblock discussions.  

How to progress to ensure the implementation of D&I training within organisations was discussed. It was agreed that a new session just to focus on online tools (SLIDO, MURAL, TEAMS and Zoom for eg.) was needed for some people. Also, a community of practice seems to be a good way forward, to ensure everyone has the support needed to advance and feel comfortable. The creation of training pairs among the participants was another option suggested, with the possibility of having people from other organisations supporting internal training sessions.  

The final Diversity@work event took place on May 28th.

56 participants from 10 European countries and institutions took part in the event through TEAMS, after a welcoming message by Karim Merali, CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation and Anu Ritz, in charge of the Diversity Charters Platform at the European commission.

The project was developed with the aim of supporting the European Union Diversity Charters to promote diversity, non-discrimination and equal opportunities in the workplace.

It also aimed to develop practical tools to achieve the Charters’ objectives and attract new signatories.

The project was leaded by the Aga Khan Foundation (Portugal) together with partners from the Estonian Human Rights Centre (Estonia), Equality Strategies (Ireland), and Diversity Charters from Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Spain and Portugal (APPDI).

The main focus of this event was to celebrate the coming end of the project and to disseminate the products created. Among them are a Blended Learning Course on Diversity & Inclusion, along with the respective facilitators Guide, and a Charter Implementation Toolkit (available soon). A facilitators training to be held in June was also announced, with the aim to increase the confidence level of D&I professionals to use the Blended Learning course.

During the meeting, and in order to increase the interaction of the participants, a chat room was created simultaneously on the TEAMS platform, with questions and answers to collect opinions and also to clarify doubts. In addition, and in order to interact more with the participants and get information about the level of diversity they experienced, questions were asked to the participants through the Slido platform.

At the event, the main achievements, results and feedback gathered during the testing phase were presented by the partners.

Image 1: Kelly Grossthal from Estonian Huma Rights centre, partner of the project

This was followed by an overview of current measures and an outlook for future actions, and explanations were given on how to take advantage of the blended learning course in the future. This free course (hosted at AKF´s Blended Learning Platform) Diversity and Inclusion | AKF Blended Learning (akdn.net), will be available upon request to all those that wish to implement it autonomously in their organizations.

Image 2: Slide presented about “how to use the Course” in each organisation

An overview of the Evaluation of the project was provided by Claudia Pedra from Stone Soup and two testimonials were presented by Susana Colaço from Altice Portugal and Piret Kask from Circkle K Estonia. Both organisations have tested the course and plan to use it further within their organisations.

During the event, the “Instantâneos” theater group had several performances with a humorous challenge, to soften the atmosphere and stimulate the audience’s mind. Participants were asked to suggest “Machines for Inclusion” that could be invented and participants got to know their inventors in interactive interviews.

Image 3: Marco from the “Instantâneos” Theater group presenting another innovative invention

This project reached so far more than 2500 people in 10 different countries, from all types of organisations and will continue to foster D&I and the Diversity Charters along time with its products. To know more, get in touch!

Our final event last Friday 28th May 2021 gathered more than 50 people from all over Europe to celebrate our journey and to get to know our products!

Thank you to all our wonderful partners and all the +200 testing organisations that helped us develop our Blended Learning Course and the Charter Implementation Toolkit.

The Blended Learning course is now available on our Blended Learning Platform (in ENG with subtitles in ENG, PRT, EST, CRT, PL, ES, RU) and is free for facilitators that wish to implement it. Reach out to us if you want to know more.

Download the event´s Power Point presentation and the projects evaluation power point bellow:

Soon we will share the final results of the project.

Are you curious about what we have developed to help your organisation foster D&I policies and practices? Or just want to know more about our Blended Learning course on D&I, or about our Diversity Charter Implementation Toolkit? Are you wondering why +1000 people are already taking part of the course? Two years have passed and we are happy to be able to share with you our final results and products, that you can now use freely in your organisation! Join us for our final event to know how!

Event via TEAMS live event (link here)

Program PDF here

An intense but successful year 2020 has come to an end for the Diversity @ Work project. The blended learning course on Diversity and Inclusion, developed in the context of the project, was tested in 9 European countries (Spain, Estonia, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Poland and Romania). So far, 9 classes have been created with a total of 198 participants (134 participants in the English course and 78 in the Portuguese). The course has been tested with 98 public and private organizations from various sectors in nine of the 10 European countries of the project. Feedback was collected from all partner organizations of the project and from a sample of signatory entities of the respective Diversity Charters, through instruments developed by Stone Soup, namely, a pre and post test questionnaire and focus groups. This feedback will now be incorporated to improve the quality of products and make them even more easy to use. It has been a real team effort, with many contributions from different people! Thank you to all colleagues who did an excellent job and helped a lot in transforming the products of the project Diversity @ Work into something tangible, which will now be used and disseminated among all European countries involved in the project. The products are expected to reach many companies and people across Europe in the coming months. They consist of:

  • 90-minute online course with 6 modules on Diversity and Inclusion
    (Introduction; Human Diversity; Unconscious Bias; Recognize and
    overcome our biases; Discrimination chain; Micro-messages; Conclusion), completed by practical exercises. The course is in English and also available with subtitles in Portuguese (more languages ​​in
    soon!).
  • Facilitation guide, including 2 session plans that we recommend to implement in complementarity with the video sessions.
  • Evaluation instruments (pre- and post-test questionnaires and focus guide
    group).

Other products are being finalized, namely a Charter Implementation Toolkit (CIT), which collects relevant tools from different Diversity Charters as well as checklists for gathering important data from organizations, regarding Diversity & Inclusion strategy results.

The products developed in the context of the Diversity@Work project are now being tested in different European countries. After watching the Diversity@Work online video lessons on Diversity & Inclusion, 17 people from 9 different organisations (Aga Khan Foundation, British Council Spain, Colt Technology, Dronak, Fundación Diversidad, IBERDROLA, Indra,  Nationale-Nederlanden  and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum) participated today in the virtual face-to-face session in Spain. Practical exercises were implemented with a light explanation part and concrete examples that relate to D&I issues at the workplace. Thank you everyone for participating in this great testing session and a big compliment and thank you to our excellent Spanish partner Fundación Diversidad who organised the session, mobilised the organisations and co-facilitated this session.  

Past July 2nd representatives from 9 European countries (Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Ireland, Portugal and Estonia) met online to jointly discuss the next steps in the Diversity@Work project. As the overall situation related to the Covid-19 pandemic varies substantially among the nine countries, the main goal of the meeting was to understand the different realities and find innovative ways for project implementation. Adjusting it to the different realities and carving out new (digital) strategies that aim to fit everyone’s needs and resources in these volatile times.

On the 27th of April another important milestone was reached for the Diversity@Work project. A first version of the blended learning scripts as well as the first draft of the written part of the Charter Implementation Toolkit were presented to all project partners in an online meeting.  

In the context of the Expert Feedback Session, moderated by the project’s external M&E team (Stone Soup Consulting), project partners were able to provide their input regarding the developed tools. 

This meeting was the first part of 2 engagement moments we have planned for the Diversity Charters that are taking part in the testing of our tools. 

Also, new solutions and ideas were discussed, to address current challenges to Inclusion within organisations. Soon we will have more news about them! 

In total, 14 people from 6 different organizations and five different European countries participated in the meeting. 

Thanks for all the important feedback, soon, our tools will be ready for testing! Thank you all for your engagement!