Advanced Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Advanced EDI training for experienced practitioners, Champions and leaders. Explore complex EDI issues and develop practical approaches to organisational change.
Advanced EDI training for experienced practitioners, Champions and leaders. Explore complex EDI issues and develop practical approaches to organisational change.
Advanced EDI practice requires more than awareness. It requires the ability to examine complex issues, understand how inequality can operate through people, culture and systems, engage with challenge and translate EDI principles into meaningful organisational practice.
In‑house courses are private sessions delivered exclusively for a group of people from your organisation, on a date that suits you, with the option to tailor the content to your staff and setting.
Open courses are public Equality and Diversity UK training dates that anyone can book onto, ideal when you only need training for one or two people.
This advanced programme is designed for people who already have a good grounding in equality, diversity and inclusion and want to develop their practice further.
Rather than revisiting introductory EDI concepts, the course moves into more complex territory. Delegates explore how power, privilege and intersectionality can influence people's experiences, how organisational structures and culture can create or reinforce barriers, and how EDI practitioners can respond when progress meets resistance.
The course also explores practical approaches to designing and delivering EDI initiatives, using mediation approaches where appropriate and applying the 7Cs Framework and EDI Anchors to strengthen planning and everyday practice.
Throughout the programme, delegates are encouraged to think critically about what meaningful EDI change looks like within their own organisation and how they can influence that change in practical, sustainable ways.
This is not an introductory EDI course. It is intended for delegates who already understand the fundamentals of equality, diversity and inclusion and are actively involved in supporting EDI within their organisation.
EDI leads, advisers and practitioners who want to deepen their understanding and strengthen their approach to organisational EDI.
Trainers and facilitators who already deliver EDI learning and want to explore more complex issues, resistance and participant dynamics.
Experienced Champions who want to extend their knowledge and increase their ability to influence EDI practice within their organisation.
Leaders with significant responsibility for EDI, organisational culture, people strategy or implementing inclusive change.
Delegates should already have a good understanding of core EDI principles before attending this programme.
The course is particularly suitable for people who have completed development such as our Train the Trainer – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion or Equality Champions training, or who have gained equivalent knowledge and experience through their role.
You do not need to have completed one of our courses. Existing professional experience or equivalent EDI knowledge is equally appropriate. The important point is that delegates are ready to move beyond introductory awareness and engage with more complex EDI practice.
Introductory EDI training can provide important knowledge and awareness. Advanced practice asks a different set of questions: how do we translate that understanding into decisions, systems, relationships and organisational change?
Delegates explore the difference between knowing EDI principles and being able to apply them when situations are complex, perspectives differ or there is resistance to change.
Move beyond individual behaviour to consider organisational culture, systems, structures and patterns of inequality.
Explore how identities, experiences, power and organisational circumstances can interact rather than viewing equality issues in isolation.
Develop approaches for working with disagreement, resistance and difficult EDI conversations without losing sight of the purpose of the work.
Connect EDI thinking with practical initiatives, training, organisational processes and everyday decision-making.
People do not experience organisations through one aspect of identity at a time. Different characteristics, identities, experiences and circumstances can intersect and influence how people experience opportunity, disadvantage, inclusion and exclusion.
The course explores intersectionality as a practical lens for EDI work rather than simply as a theoretical concept.
Consider how focusing on one characteristic or experience in isolation can sometimes obscure important differences between people.
Explore whose experiences are represented, who may be overlooked and whether different groups experience the same policy or initiative differently.
Use intersectional thinking to inform training, consultation, organisational initiatives and decisions without reducing individuals to labels.
Advanced EDI practice requires an ability to discuss power and privilege thoughtfully and constructively.
The course considers how power can arise through organisational hierarchy, professional status, access to decision-makers, social norms and wider patterns of advantage and disadvantage.
Privilege is explored without assuming that an individual has had an easy life or that people can be divided neatly into privileged and disadvantaged groups. Instead, delegates consider how particular characteristics, circumstances or systems may create advantages in some contexts and barriers in others.
The purpose is not to encourage guilt or blame. It is to develop the ability to recognise how power and advantage can influence participation, opportunity, decision-making and whose voices are most likely to be heard.
EDI problems are not always caused by somebody deliberately behaving unfairly. Organisational systems, established ways of working and apparently neutral practices can sometimes create different outcomes or barriers.
Consider behaviours, assumptions, relationships, influence and how people experience inclusion within the organisation.
Explore unwritten expectations, accepted behaviours, whose voices carry influence and what happens when people challenge established norms.
Examine how policies, processes, decision-making and organisational structures can support inclusion or unintentionally create barriers.
People may resist EDI initiatives for many different reasons. They may disagree with an approach, feel excluded from the conversation, misunderstand its purpose, question the evidence, worry about saying the wrong thing or simply be uncomfortable with change.
Treating every form of resistance in the same way can make constructive engagement more difficult.
Explore what may be driving a reaction before deciding how best to respond.
Use questioning, listening and facilitation techniques that encourage dialogue while maintaining appropriate boundaries.
Recognise the difference between legitimate questions or disagreement and behaviour that requires clearer challenge or intervention.
The existing programme includes mediation as a way of helping delegates respond to resistance and conflict. This does not mean turning EDI practitioners into professional mediators.
Instead, delegates explore useful principles drawn from mediation that can support difficult conversations, training and organisational EDI work.
Understand different perspectives, identify the underlying concern and distinguish positions from the issues beneath them.
Use questions, reframing and common ground to help move difficult conversations towards greater understanding and practical next steps.
The programme explores the use of EDI Anchors to help delegates keep equality, diversity and inclusion connected to the everyday work of the organisation.
Rather than allowing EDI to become a separate activity that sits alongside the organisation's main priorities, delegates consider where equality and inclusion can be anchored into existing decisions, behaviours, processes and responsibilities.
The 7Cs Framework forms part of the existing Advanced EDI programme and provides delegates with a structured approach to thinking about EDI planning, training and initiatives.
Delegates explore how the framework can help them move from broad intentions towards more considered EDI activity, asking the right questions during planning and considering how their work connects with everyday organisational practice.
The emphasis is on application: using the framework as a practical tool rather than treating it as another piece of EDI theory.
Advanced practitioners are often involved in developing training, campaigns, networks, policies or other EDI initiatives. The course encourages delegates to think critically about how those activities are designed and what they are intended to achieve.
What issue are we trying to address and what would meaningful progress actually look like?
Whose perspectives and experiences need to inform the work, and who may currently be missing from the conversation?
How will the initiative influence actual decisions, behaviours, processes or experiences rather than ending with awareness alone?
Sustainable EDI change cannot rest solely on individual enthusiasts, Champions or EDI practitioners. Organisations also need leadership, accountability and systems that support the behaviours and outcomes they want to create.
Delegates explore how they can influence change while remaining realistic about their own role and authority.
By the end of the course, delegates should be better able to:
Advanced EDI training is particularly valuable when delegates can connect the discussion with the challenges they are encountering in their own organisation.
We can tailor the programme around your EDI priorities, organisational context and the responsibilities of the delegates attending.
Focus discussion and practical activity around the areas where your organisation is seeking to make progress.
Explore relevant issues such as engagement, resistance, organisational culture or embedding EDI into existing practice.
Adapt the emphasis for EDI leads, trainers, Champions, managers or mixed groups with responsibility for advancing EDI.
All our in-house courses are tailored to ensure the training reflects your organisation's goals and priorities.
The course can be delivered face-to-face or online via Zoom or Teams.
Advanced EDI is primarily a full-day course. The subject matter benefits from time for discussion, critical reflection, practical application and exploration of the more complex issues that can arise in EDI practice.
A shortened half-day version can also be delivered where required. This provides a more focused programme covering selected advanced themes but allows less time for detailed discussion, practical application and exploration of organisational scenarios.
We charge £895 for the full-day course.
A shortened half-day version is available from £595. Please note that half-day delivery may not always be available for face-to-face training.
We can tailor Advanced EDI training around the experience of your delegates and the equality, diversity and inclusion challenges your organisation is working to address.
Discuss Your Advanced EDI TrainingOver 25 years' experience delivering equality, diversity and inclusion training, consultancy and professional development.
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