The First Webinar in RTO7's New Workforce Development Series

RTO7 is pleased to announce the launch of our new Workforce Development Series, created specifically for the tourism stakeholders in BruceGreySimcoe. The first  in the series, offered virtually, covers the topics of equity, diversity and inclusion.

Pre-registration is required for this and all webinars in the series. Admission is FREE. Register early to avoid disappointment.

This event is now over.
 

Thursday January 27, 2022 9:30 – 12:00
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: How to change the uncomfortable discussions into enlightening discussions

Description
Despite a deepening skills shortage in Canada's workforce, equity-seeking groups continue to face systemic barriers to employment. Employers often lack the support and the resources to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces and effectively recruit and retain marginalized groups. This workshop will shed the light on EDI different levels of awareness and offer employers innovative approaches on how to take their EDI profile from awareness to action by introducing action-oriented tools that help building more diverse and inclusive work environments and improve employment practices.

Learning Outcomes: by the end of this training module, employers will be able to: 

1. Understand what do Diversity, Inclusion and Equity mean and how similar or different they are.
2. How to create safe spaces for employers and employees to discuss EDI
3. Challenges faced by employers to implement EDI
4. Barriers to achieve EDI: Systemic Racism, Discrimination, Biases (conscious and unconscious), micro aggression, workplace exclusion. Stereotyping
5. Different EDI terminologies and what to use?
6. Understand why diversity is important/ (Business Case) for Hospitality Sector
7. Understand the impact of diversity on workplaces’ profitability
8. Cultural Competency and Cultural Humility
9. How to champion EDI and where to start (brief actual examples of Job Postings’ edits from EDI lens) 

Wessam Ayad is an EDI Consultant and Training Facilitator.  She also is the Workplace Inclusion Charter Supervisor at KEYS Job Centre in Kingston Ontario. For many years, Wessam has supported several diverse populations including BIPOC communities, People with Disabilities/Disabled People, Indigenous peoples, Newcomers, Racialized Women and many more and has successfully supported and advocated for more inclusion practices in the Canadian workforce and communities. Many of the underrepresented individuals that she helped, have landed great jobs and have very remarkable success stories about their employment journeys in Canada.
 
Struggling as a racialized woman and an internationally trained professional herself, she decided to use and strengthen her education, work and life experience to support underrepresented communities in Canada as well as Canadian employers and the Not for Profit sector through her EDI work. More than 40 employers and organizations have applauded her skills, efforts and experience in designing, developing, implementing, promoting, leading, delivering and evaluating innovative and fully integrated diversity and inclusion action plans.
 
Examples of her achievements are the creation of The Begin Again Group Co-op for refugee women www.beginagaingroup.ca and the highest achieved employment rate in the province for the Destination Employment program funded by IRCC as well as supporting more than 40 employers including public sector employers to improve their EDI profiles by offering action oriented and training based tools.
Wessam has been a guest speaker in many EDI forums including Disrupt HR Talk, Kingston 2017, Queen’s Reads 2019, Cannexus, Ottawa 2019, OCASI Conference, Toronto 2019, Growing Your Workforce Conference 2021 , National Workplace Inclusion Forum 2021, 
 
Wessam has recently been nominated for the Ban Righ Foundation Inspiring Women Leadership Award for 2021-22 for her recognized and remarkable EDI work in the Kingston community.

• For more information on Workforce Development or the workshops series, contact Kim Clarke, Manager, Stakeholder Relations, kclarke@rto7.ca.
• There is still time to sign up for our next webinar on March 24, 2022:  2SLGBTQ+ Diversity & Inclusion Management Training. Learn more HERE.
• Read our January 12 newsletter, RTO7 Introduces New Workforce Development Series.