Role Model in the Community,
FE Sector and Beyond:
Transgender (Trans) Visibility and Inclusion
The College believes that the mainstreaming of equality extends also to its role in the
communities of Ayrshire, the FE sector and beyond. As such, the integration of equality
into the day-to-day workings of the College remains important to ‘what we do’ as an
organisation. It symbolises, in part, how the College conducts its business and the
significance it places on equality, inclusion and diversity. Yet, it is also in the ‘who we
are’ where the College can influence universal change to eliminate discrimination,
harassment and victimisation; advance equality of opportunity; and foster good
relations. There are many examples which demonstrate this however, one real strength
addressing all three concerns noted, is the College’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender+ (LGBT+) work. The need to raise awareness and inform understandings is
ever present when it is known LGBT educational experience in Scotland remain, overall,
poor with impacts felt in relation to retention and attainment. The College is confident
that the steps it has taken, and will continue to take moving forward, will address
these challenges.
KEY H I G H L I GH T S
The College was the only college in Scotland invited to contribute to the Equality Challenge
Unit (ECU) revised trans guidance for FE and HE with Heather Dunk, Ayrshire College Principal
and Chief Executive, providing a Foreword for the document
The College was also the only college in Scotland to have worked in partnership with the
Scottish Transgender Alliance (STA) to deliver two trans-focused webinars, one of which, ‘I
don’t want to slot into male/female: non-binary’, was hosted simultaneously on GlowTV and
College Development Network (CDN) (February 2016). Both webinars have been highly
commended; the Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee referenced the trans webinar
in November 2015 and CDN described the non-binary webinar in February 2016 as ‘ground-
breaking’ in facilitating knowledge and understanding of this gender identity and its relevance
to those in Education
The College, as a member of the Ayrshire LGBT+ Development Group, hosted ‘Let’s talk
about trans’ conversation cafes in November 2016 in each of its three main campuses to gain
better insight of the trans experience in Ayrshire and to identify actions to support
the community
A number of frontline staff participated in trans training with the College’s Equality and
Inclusion team and Scottish Transgender Alliance (STA)
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