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EQUAL
OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUSTAINED DEVELOPMENT IN THE IRISH FOOD INDUSTRY
Report
presented at WITS AGM, November 11th, 2000
The WITS
Food Industry NOW Project has finally come to an end after five
years. This report gives an overview of the project, and
its main achievements.
Overview
The WITS
NOW project was set up in 1995 to address career development
for women scientists, technologists and engineers working in
Irish indigenous industry. Over the years it broadened
its scope to implementing procedures to promote Equal Opportunities
and the valuing of Diversity at Work.
The project
involved a consortium of WITS and three of Ireland's largest
food companies Golden Vale plc, Greencore Group Plc and the
Kerry Group.
Project
Actions and Outcomes
Management
Development training for Women
The project
devised and delivered three Management Diploma programmes, with
a total of 52 graduates at UCC and UL. The Diploma course
was designed for women who wished to complement their technical
expertise with general management skills. It combined
knowledge, theories and concepts of management with practical
skills development. All participants reported an increase
in their confidence and competence in their jobs, and this was
reflected in promotions and increased responsibility for 80%
of them.
Over 100
women also benefited from short career development workshops,
some run exclusively for WITS. This included a Stress
Management seminar last winter.
During the
second project, it was decided to organise some career planning
workshops for 3rd level students, to make them more aware, before
they entered industry. Entitled "Horizons" the programme
was piloted in UL and in LIT. It encouraged participants
to look objectively at their skills and to match them to careers,
rather than just following peers into gender segregated areas
by default. It urged them to take charge of their careers,
rather than expecting an employer to do it for them.
Equal Opportunities
and Diversity
The three
participating companies have all produced and implemented a
formal set of policies on equal opportunities and diversity.
These cover areas such as
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Dignity
at work - combating harassment and bullying
Fair
recruitment and selection
Appraisal
Training
and Development
Work
/ Life balance.
To ensure
that other Irish Indigenous companies can benefit from the experiences
of the NOW Project in this area, we produced a CDROM entitled
Managing Diversity in a changing Business Environment. This
was launched at the end of May by Tánaiste Mary Harney
at a reception to mark the end of the project. The CD has
now been distributed to 3,500 companies in Ireland with the assistance
of the Institute of Personnel and Development.
Transnational
Links
Through
the NOW project WITS established excellent links with EU partners
working on similar themes. Over the past year, we hosted
visits from German and UK women managers and scientists, as
well as travelling to Northern Ireland.
Cross border
co-operation was particularly important with the establishment
of the Triple Cross Network, a group of six projects all working
on different aspects of women's employment. Under the
banner "Tipping the Balance" the network hosted a cross border
conference, and produced an audio CD, conference proceedings
and case study report.
Final Words
and Acknowledgements
We would
like to thank the following -
Sara Bourke
and Mary Bourke, Project Manager and Assistant
Vera Mortell,
Jimmy Codd and Aine Quinlan of Golden Vale, Adrian Grey, Edel
Cahill and Caroline Reidy of Kerry Group and Pat Lunny of Greencore.
The National
Women's Council who provided technical support to the project,
and especially the programme manager Patricia Lee.
The WITS
project team including Jacqueline Allan, Catherine Adley, Jane
Hanly, Marian O'Sullivan, Ann Graham, Helen Hughes and Blaithin
Tarpey.
Clare O'Connor
and Aileen McGrath of WITS who originally conceived the project,
developed it and steered it through to its successful conclusion.
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