What is FREDIE?

FREDIE stands for Fairness, Respect, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement, and it is the backbone of a truly inclusive culture. Through the work of the FREDIEs the National Centre for Diversity aims to build a better society by helping organisations to embed FREDIE values in their culture.

Diversity and Inclusion is important

Diversity and Inclusion are very much on the agenda to be forward-thinking and ambitious. We are committed to FREDIE to demonstrate that we are fulfilling our obligations to UK Equality Legislation including the Equality Act 2010, and to encourage a supplier network of likeminded organisations, we will develop and train our staff and learners to follow the FREDIE principles.

More learners, more successful more often.

We are serious about Equality and Diversity because:

• As an employer we wish to attract diverse talent to work with us.
• As a vocational college we are working with employers to prepare more learners for the inclusive workplaces of the future.

Our achievements

• Over many years our Workplace values have been core to our College culture and guide us in everything we do (Respectful, Professional, Ambitious, Resilient). It’s a natural progression to develop FREDIE values too.
• Eastleigh College began working with the National Centre for Diversity (NCFD) in 2020 to further embed its workplace values of ambition, respect, resilience and professionalism in all college activities
• The 2021 NCFD FREDIE Awards put Eastleigh College in 48th place in the Top 100 Most Inclusive Workplaces Index. The index is based on evidence of participating employers’ commitment to the ‘FREDIEs, which was obtained from an anonymous survey that asked staff and learners from across the college about their experiences of diversity and inclusion at college.

Our focus

The NCFD index enables us to understand what’s going well and where we need to focus our efforts by working on the FREDIEs.

We will monitor and review our performance against our NCFD commitments in various ways including the regulatory ILR or ESFA returns to monitor for Gender, Age, Ethnicity and ECHP.

Our FREDIE Working Group and NCFD annual review will help us to be better at embedding FREDIE behaviours in college-wide interactions including:

• Tutorial content designed for staff and learners
• Policies & procedures and CDP for all college/stakeholders (employees/clients/suppliers/ governors)
• Marketing communications (on all channels)

Commitment from the top

Chief Executive and Principal, Paul Cox said: “Equality and Diversity is core to the Eastleigh College strategy. We continually challenge ourselves to improve and our values are at the core of everything we do. The NCFD and FREDIE are helping us to improve further by ensuring our college culture is as inclusive, as it is ambitious. To be ranked 48th in our first year working with the NCFD is a great testament to our whole College. Working with the NCFD will remain a key priority for us all for the years ahead.”