The West Yorkshire student and graduate population is diverse and an asset to the region. Not all graduates will have shared the same journey into, through and beyond higher education. Learners and graduates will have differing levels of external support, economic, social and cultural capital. As a result, they will have very different starting points when progressing their studies and shaping their careers.

GHWY works across our membership to address inequalities that impact higher education learners, whilst studying and as they progress into work. We recognise that students from underrepresented groups face barriers in securing graduate level work despite achieving academic qualifications.

Inclusive recruitment practices help employers secure employees with the skills they need whilst removing barriers that may negatively impact individuals or groups within our society. Inclusive recruitment seeks to remove conscious or unconscious bias in relation to gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and disability.

Developing a workforce that is representative of the communities it serves is a moral and business benefit. A diverse workforce is more culturally aware and pools together a range of experiences and perspectives. This has been shown to benefit performance, productivity, innovation, problem solving and the understanding of customer groups.

The University of Bradford delivers the Graduate Workforce Bradford project funded by the Office for Students. In collaboration with regionally based employers the project has produced an Inclusive Employer Toolkit. This helps employers to take steps to embed inclusivity within recruitment and their workplace culture.

The Social Mobility Commission has produced employer resources to support inclusivity, diversity and equality. The Confederation of British Industry has captured statistics on the benefits of workforce diversity.