Equality of Access

1. Equality of Access Maria Callinan 9 September 2010

2. County & City Enterprise Boards • 35 agencies established by the Industrial Development Act 1995 • Registered as private limited companies • Voluntary directors representing local government, state agencies, business and community • Financed by government • Approx €25m per annum • Staffed by 140 persons..average 4 • Remit: businesses employing 10 or less FTE • Subject to C&AG audit, SIPO • Located in each county and city

3. CEB Supports • Finance......Feasibility & Business Development Grants • Training......Finance, Marketing, SYOB etc • Mentoring....Individual or small group • Advice.......... Individual counselling • Information...Supports/Markets • Referrals........other agencies/funds • Events...........national and local

4. Equality of Access • Females • Youth • Migrants • Unemployed

7. Female Entrepreneurship Initiatives • Resourcing local women in business networks • Presentations on CEB supports • Meetings with network facilitators • Hosting network meetings • Sponsorship of speakers at network meetings • Provision of training specifically for women e.g. Level 6 FETAC “Women in Business Enterprise Development Certificate”

11. Highlighting Female Entrepreneurship • CEB Women in Business Awards at local level • Support of non-CEB female entrepreneurship awards • Highlighting successful role models e.g. Booklets featuring local women in business • CEB National Womens Enterprise Day event held annually – seminars.... Mentoring...... .........exhibition ..... networking

15. Student Entrepreneurship Initiatives • Bi Gnothach teacher’s workbook designed and provided to primary teachers with the aim of introducing 11-12 year-olds to enterprise • Enterprise Encounter programme designed and promoted to secondary schools • Presentations to students and schools • Collaboration with Department of Education, ..........Education Centres and Institutes.

18. Highlighting Student Entrepreneurship • CEB Student Enterprise Awards, a national competition held annually to reward student mini-company projects • CEB Student Enterprise Days to grow awareness of enterprise • Sponsorship of thesmallbusinessgame.ie – an online game competition rewarding skills

21. Migrant Entrepreneurship Initiatives • Training courses for those to whom English is a second language • Training for enterprises on integration • Website translations of key texts

23. Highlighting Migrant Entrepreneurship • Support of Social Enterprise Awards • Publicising role models

26. Unemployed Entrepreneurship Initiatives • Presentations in upcoming redundancy situations e.g. Dell closure • Presentations to unemployed groups e.g. Fresh Start Conference in Waterford City • Ideas Generation Workshops • Cooperation with Traveller Education programmes, and pilot programmes e.g. Ella

32. CEBs Aware that Equality of Access is: • Required by law • Required by democratic values • Required by economics

33. Awareness of EU initiatives An increasing number of European companies are adopting diversity and equality strategies, not only for ethical and legal reasons but also for the business benefits they are expected to deliver. Among the most important of these benefits are enhanced employee recruitment and retention from a wider pool of high quality workers, improved corporate image and reputation, greater innovation and enhanced marketing opportunities. The Business Case for Diversity Good Practices in the Workplace European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D.3

35. Implementing Equality of Access -external • Awareness • Information • Call to Action • Reaching target groups • Language, images, media channels • Customer service principles

36. Implementing Equality of Access-internal • Begins with awareness among all staff of the laws, values and logic underpinning the principle – leadership role. • Design initiatives which provide equality of access • Plan communications, internal or external, to meet best practice

37. Example Best Practice: Create and Use a Communications Plan for each initiative • Step 1: Assess the present situation • Review the performance of all your present communications and identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Then identify any lessons learned from past communications exercises, so that mistakes made in the past are not repeated. • Step 2: Communications Objectives • List the top three objectives that you want to achieve from your communications. • Step 3: Communications Guidelines • Set out your communications guidelines for controlling communications within your project. For example, you may decide that: • All messages will be distributed through pre-defined channels • All critical communications will be pre-approved by management • All communications will be tailored, based on stakeholder needs

38. Step 4: Target Audience Define exactly who it is that your team will formally communicate with. Remember, formal communications are a method for controlling the messages sent out by your team. They promote a single consistent view of your project to a specified audience. Step 5: Stakeholder Needs Each target audience group will have their own needs. These stakeholders will require information that is specific to them. Step 6: Key Messages List the key messages that need to be sent to each Stakeholder. The next step is to define how you will deliver each message to them, through a delivery channel. Step 7: Delivery Channels There are a huge variety of ways in which you can deliver your key messages to stakeholders (e.g. emails, newsletters, meetings, conferences). For each stakeholder, identify the channel that you will use to deliver your key messages.

39. Step 8: Communications Schedule Now you are ready to create the schedule of communications events, activities and actions that are required to deliver the right messages to the right people at the right time. Create a detailed schedule of events and for each item listed, specify the timeframes for completion and any dependencies on other events in the schedule. Step 9: Communications Events For each event listed in your schedule, describe it in depth. Make sure that you define the purpose of the event, how it will take place and when it should occur. Step 10: Communications Matrix Once you have listed the events and described them in detail, you need to identify who will manage them and who will review their effectiveness. Create a matrix which lists for each event who is accountable for the event, who will take part and who will review its success. Implement feedback measures such as questionnaires, feedback forms and surveys to learn how to continually improve communications.