ACCUSATIONS of racism have been levelled at Bristol City Council, for advertising a management training scheme purely for ethnic minorities.
The city’s largest employer is looking for two graduates in a bid to address its lack of minority employees and better match the ethnic diversity of the city.
The process is legal but one potential applicant, who did not wish to be named, has criticised the fact the job was not open to everyone. He said: “I am a tolerant white person who has lived in Bristol for 27 years.
“I am currently searching for a job and stumbled across a job advertisement on Bristol City Council’s website that I see as totally racist.
“I feel the job itself would be an excellent opportunity for me to make use of the skills and qualifications that I have acquired, however, being white I am totally excluded from applying for the post.
“Surely equal opportunities means giving everyone an equal chance to succeed rather than discriminating against people because of the colour of their skin.”
Of the council’s 9,000 non-school members of staff, 8,370 are white and 630 from ethnic minorities. That is seven per cent, compared to 12 per cent of the Bristol population being non-white.
The graduates would be paid £18,000 a year for the two-year placement but are not guaranteed a job at the end of it.
The job description states: “You should have a strong interest in the delivery of local public services, be able to take the initiative and have the confidence to relate to people at all levels within the council.
“The traineeship will involve rotating placements in different services of the city council where you will be where you will be given ‘on the job’ training and undertake projects including policy and research work. The successful candidates will be offered a postgraduate diploma in management studies, a tax-free training allowance and mentoring and support throughout.”
The council says it has other training schemes that are open to all, and others that are aimed just at young people, though these have yet to be criticised as “ageist”. Spokesman James Easey said: “This is the third year of running the traineeship and was it started because of the marked under-representation of BME people in the council’s workforce.
“The normal recruitment process was not rectifying this unacceptably low trend, so there was a strong case for this small positive recruitment traineeship for two black / minority ethnic graduates a year, as set out by section 37 of the Race Relations Act 1976. We have a total workforce of over 9,000 employees, excluding school staff, so this is a very small training programme.
“Graduates from any ethnic background are of course open to apply for the national graduate local government programme which we recruit from every year – we have just recruited two graduates in this way.
“We also run a successful apprenticeship programme for the under 24s – so far we have placed 62 to date.”
MUST
The Race Relations Act states that where, in the previous 12 months, a particular racial group is under-represented or absent in particular work in the council, the authority can offer training exclusively for people from that group to help fit them for that type of work.
Closing date to apply for the scheme is Friday, June 11.
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