06/21/2022

Pride Month 2022

Amidst our Pride celebrations this month, we spoke to our Area Manager for our Jobs Growth Wales Plus Scheme and our LGBTQ+ Lead for Itec, Billy Pearce.

Billy has worked as a Trainer/Work Placement Advisor, an Employability and Social Inclusion Manager, Training, HR & IT Manager and more recently a Regional Training Manager, before joining us at Itec.

As an Area Manager for our centres, working closely with our 16-18 year old learners, Billy has helped put together a learning plan for Pride Month.

Our Pride learning plan covers:

  • The differences between gender identity vs sexual orientation,
  • LGBT+ terms and acronyms explained
  • Pride history
  • Positive Change
  • Success Stories

We asked Billy what was the goal of the LGBTQ+ learning plan when you put it together?

This session aimed to give awareness of the LGBTQ+ community, answer questions, and show support to a diverse learner presence across JGW+ centres and contracts.

The session hopes to enhance positive support and acceptance in a community that is still very much targeted for abuse and hate crime and to challenge individuals’ existing beliefs about what being part of the LGBTQ+ community means.

We also asked Billy, why is Pride important to ITEC?

Itec works with learners without any discrimination, enabling a safe place for them to develop and work out who they are and what they want to achieve.

Pride is important to us to promote the fact that individuals don’t need to hide who they are and how they are feeling but to embrace and love themselves.

As a training provider, we value the difference in everyone and support individuals to grow and develop in a supportive safe environment.