The SME Marketing Academy is committed to providing equality of opportunity and freedom from unlawful discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, sexual orientation, disability, race (including colour, nationality, ethnic origin), religion or beliefs, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity status, marital or civil partnership status.

No member, learner, customer, client or member of staff shall knowingly receive less favourable treatment on these grounds, nor will any other condition or requirement that cannot be justified disadvantage them.

We value others for their contribution, irrespective of personal differences, and strive to provide a supportive and inclusive learning and working environment where everyone feels that they are valued and can work to achieve their potential.

Through our policy, we aim to support equality, diversity and inclusion to ensure continued success of marketing professionals. We will:

• actively oppose all forms of discrimination and unfair or discriminatory practice
• value and harness the diversity of our members, learners, employers, suppliers and partner organisations
• create an environment within which all individuals are treated with fairness and respect
• fully implement the Equality Act 2010 and associated legislation to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

This policy applies across all areas of our training provision.

Our Training Provision

The SME Marketing Academy delivers training to a wide variety of learners and their employers from different backgrounds and communities. To ensure equality of opportunity we will:

• ensure information about our programmes is accessible and written in ‘plain English’ as well as provide information in different formats where required
• discuss individual needs with learners to understand any support requirements for additional learning needs, making reasonable adjustments where appropriate.
• ensure that learners who have an identified disability or additional learning needs receive reasonable adjustments and appropriate support as required

Complaints

If an individual believes that they have suffered any type of discrimination, harassment or victimisation we will take this very seriously.

Complaints can be raised formally through our Complaints Procedure.

Advertising and Information

The SME Marketing Academy is committed to equality and we will work to make sure that the language and images used in all publications and electronic media is inclusive and does not discriminate.