Opening up Photonics is a platform supporting the Scottish photonics industry to discuss, challenge and address as a community, barriers faced by minority groups, with the aim of increasing accessibility, championing diversity, and ensuring a welcoming and supportive environment for all.
For example, the Photonics in Scotland 2020 Report showed that only 27% of the sector workforce is female, which while better than the global average of 20% still leaves a lot of room for improvement.
Diversity is critical to the growth and development of the talent pool in Scotland. It helps organisations attract and retain the best and brightest talent. It makes organisations more adaptable, helps avoid group-think, and contributes to disrupting the status quo. Diversity is good for business because different perspectives drive innovation, accelerate growth, and lead to more robust decisions and outcomes.
Simply it is the right thing to do.
We acknowledge that the photonics sector can and should do more, with greater energy and speed, to increase equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility within our organisations.
Diversity is not an end in itself, but a powerful means to collectively improve our sector. By broadening the talent pool from which we can select our workforce we can ensure that the recognised and chronic skills gaps of the sector can be minimised.
Diversity is more than statistics. It must also be felt and seen: in the actions taken, the language used, and our interactions.
In order to move forward, those of us who hold power must show through our actions and words that we are serious about delivering a more diverse photonics sector, and to hold ourselves accountable for seeking out and supporting a more equal sector, which benefits everyone.
