College is up for a top award

South Lanarkshire College has been shortlisted as a finalist in a prestigious awards ceremony that applauds organisations that have at least 50 per cent female leadership at executive level.

The Lead 50/50 award has been created to ensure gender equality, because while women make up 40 per cent of the global workforce only about five per cent are CEOS.

At South Lanarkshire College, 56 per cent of its senior leadership team are female. Its principal and CEO, Aileen Mckechnie, is supported by Stella Mcmanus in the depute principal role, and two out of three of its associate principals, its head of student services and its head of IT and MIS are also women.

Gender equality is visible right across the organisation in its senior leadership and college management roles, as its head of HR, finance director and head of facilities are all men.

South Lanarkshire College’s head of human resources, Gary Mcintosh, said:“at South Lanarkshire College, we know that equality and diversity make us a better organisation, a better employer and better able to deliver on our strategic objectives.

“We’re extremely proud to say that we’ve achieved a split of 56 per cent women to 44 per cent men on the college’s senior leadership team. At South Lanarkshire College, our commitment to supporting all equality strands, including gender equality, has made a significant difference to our growth, our recruitment of staff and students, our innovation and our vision for the future, ensuring that we remain as one of Scotland’s top performing colleges for student success consistently year-on-year.”

Aileen Mckechnie said:“equality and diversity sit at the very heart of our core values here at South Lanarkshire College and we have introduced a wide range of policies and procedures that support us as a truly diverse and inclusive employer.

“The value of workplace and workforce diversity is recognised across all organisational research and we are absolutely committed to securing a gender equal workforce; to supporting an inclusive employee journey from recruitment through to retirement; and to managing our diverse talent to ongoing success.

“Fairness, equity and equality are vital to our students, our staff and to our wider college community – and absolutely critical to our ongoing success as an education provider.“

And she added:“we are delighted to have been shortlisted for the Lead 50/50 awards and look forward to attending the virtual awards ceremony when it takes place today Thursday, October 28.”