The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) Diversity Task Force launched in April 2021 as a year-long project to identify and tackle the root issues that have the potential to undermine the automotive sector’s future sustainability.
Nine months on, the IMI has published its interim report on initial progress of the Industry Expert Panel and the three working groups that make up the Task Force.
Focusing on the growing skills needs of the sector and how the lack of diversity is compounding the issue, the Task Force set out to find ways in which the industry can increase its appeal to a more diverse workforce. “Even before we started this project, we were aware that there was much that we did not know,” explained Professor Jim Saker, President of the IMI. “So identifying the gaps in knowledge was the first and most important task for our experts to undertake and we are enormously grateful to everyone who has embraced this huge undertaking by getting involved, enabling the work to move at a faster pace than we dared hope.” The full report and final recommendations will be published in March 2022.
Each Working Group has presented general recommendations for the industry, as well as those focused more specifically on their areas of expertise. General recommendations include benchmarking professional standards against cultural competency and developing Continual Professional Development activities that effectively support diversity and inclusion within the automotive sector.
