Round II EQUAL Projects 2006 - 2007

EQUAL is an ESF Community Initiative which aims to promote new ways of combating all forms of discrimination and inequalities in relation to the labour market through transnational co-operation. The Worklife Adaptability Partnership (WAP) is a group of 15 partners who are committed to and involved in projects that engage both employers and employees in challenging traditional workplace practices: projects that encourage innovation, thereby promoting equality in the workplace. It also offers an exciting opportunity to make a real difference to the way companies and people work in Scotland.

The concept of partnership is enshrined in the fabric of the EQUAL Initiative: between member states, national organisations and, perhaps most importantly, the partnership between all of the participating organisations and the beneficiaries they seek to support. It is our hope that WAP will expand during its life and that we will continue to attract interest in and support for our aims and objectives.

The overall aim of the programme is to develop a more inclusive Scottish Workplace, which will contribute to Social Justice and allow the SME base to operate more competitively by using new broadband infrastructures to encourage sustainable business economic growth, in rural and disadvantaged areas. We will achieve this by:

• promoting EQUAL to SMEs as a business advantage
• engaging with employers to integrate worklife balance into their ethos and thereby develop practices that combat horizontal and vertical segregation in the economy by allowing full engagement of groups who find it difficult due to rural locations, ethnic culture, disability, gender and age.
• focusing on retention issues
• operating in the context of the demographic time-bomb and developing good practice to combat anticipated labour and skill shortages
• establishing collaborative networks with emerging clusters to create future sustainability.

The second phase of the EQUAL programme in Scotland is called Building Smarter Communities, and will concentrate on the five EQUAL projects outlined here.