Mainstreaming  Equal-Agender

The mainstreaming phase of the Agender project is now under way.  There are four mainstreaming objectives:

• to disseminate Agender Pilot activity to Children’s Centres and Early Years and Childcare Teams locally and nationally, highlighting good practice in non gender traditional employment and information advice and guidance within Children's Centres – thus providing a framework for the implementation and planning of successful delivery.

• to have an impact on employment of women in non gender traditional roles and share resources and good practice developed to support the employment of women in these areas.

• to share good practice and experience of Agender pilot training programmes and encourage  mainstreaming of these schemes.

• to share effectiveness of the marketing strategy developed to attract men into childcare.

The target audience for this work is wide and will include Children’s Centres, Early Years and Childcare Teams, Local and National government, Policy makers, EU Commissioners, European partners, Jobcentre Plus, Trade Unions, Employer Groups, Sector Agencies, Training Providers, Learning and Skills Councils, Funding Bodies and Childcare Information Bureaux including Childcare providers. Mainstreaming outputs will include:

• disseminating the reports compiling and evaluating research data into women’s training experiences

• sharing evaluation reports on the outcomes of Agender activity concerning the effectiveness of new

• information, advice and guidance tools piloted through Children’s Centres

• the recommendations from the Men into Childcare pilot 

• the experience of transnational working collaboration 

• dissemination of the research activity undertaken by Agender  

• a variety of large and small dissemination events to different audiences locally, nationally and transnationally.

The Agender project delivered its first mainstreaming event, “You Can Too”, in March 2007 at the Burlington Hotel in Birmingham. This event was well attended and demonstrated the benefits of a diverse workforce through the various speakers and events. We were joined by Nina Skorupska, a director with Npower, and Diane Youdale, formerly Jet from Gladiators, who wowed delegates with her motivational workout. A short video clip of the event will soon be available on the web site.

The Agender team (Verity Baker, Jenny Dunstall & Leon Edman) assisted by key partners attended Employment Week in Brussels in June and were able to showcase the project activity to a wide European audience. An evening reception was held at the West Midlands in Europe office in the evening, with guest Liz Lynne, MEP for the West Midlands region.  More events are planned and the first of these will be the Ecotec dissemination event on September 10th & 11th 2007, at the Birmingham International Convention Centre. There will be a breakfast meeting with MEPs on 7th November in Brussels and Agender will be appearing on 11^th December at the second Adjust the Balance Social Footprints Symposium, also at the ICC. 

A new working group attached to the Birmingham Early Years Children’s Centres Steering Group has been set up with the remit to take forward some of the Agender development and Jobcentreplus employment advice initiatives within all Birmingham and Solihull Children’s Centres. The work will highlight the good practice in non-gender traditional employment information advice and guidance within Children’s Centres. The Employment, Training and Advice working group is an example of mainstreaming in action as it will continue to offer support and information to parents through the development of Children’s Centres services beyond the life of the Agender project.