On Monday 2nd March, I took up my invitation from the Carnegie Trust to attend the launch of their report Race Inequality in the Workforce at the House of Commons.

The report was produced with UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies and Operation Black Vote and hosted by OBVs Lord Wooley.

The two key points to take away for charities were:

• Employers should work proactively to identify priorities for tackling race inequality in their organisation and report regularly on progress. To effectively assist change, an internal race disparity audit should be introduced. This would help to reveal any ethnic minority pay gap, along with any racial disparities in regards to senior staff, and provide a basis for proactive planning to address disparities.

• Employers should make use of the growing body of resources about promoting good mental health in the workplace, including the courses offered by the charity Mind, and the Mental Health First Aid training courses.

The speakers included Matthew Taylor, the CEO of the Royal Society. Dr Zubaida Haque, Deputy Director of the Runnymede Trust who made the point that across the UK in all sectors:

“People with foreign-sounding names must send 60-90% more CVs because it’s harder just to be called back when they see the name”

Inequality in the Workforce is an issue very close to my heart. That is why this year we have launched “Free Career Coaching For Young Working Class People” . This is a scheme open to financially disadvantaged young people of all races. Our first recipient of the coaching last week was Adeola, a young black woman.

To find out more: Free Career Coaching applications