The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has achieved Gold standard in the Opportunity Now Benchmarking Survey - the UK’s most extensive survey on gender equality and diversity in the workplace.

The LSC achieved an overall score of 83% in the survey to secure this top ranking in gender equality and diversity.

Survey areas in which the LSC demonstrated significant progress were: ensuring equality and diversity in recruitment and selection, monitoring the impact of gender equality and diversity action on the organisation and ensuring equality in redeployment and redundancy.

The Opportunity Now benchmarking survey operates nationally, and is a chance for employers to take stock of their progress on the journey towards gender equality and diversity. It provides them with a tool to measure their own development over a set period and also gives them a snapshot of where they stand, relative to their peers.

Lee Probert, director of Equality and Diversity, says: “We are extremely pleased with these results and we plan to continue our good work and go on to challenge ourselves further in this area and strive to further improve our results for next year’s survey. Feedback from the survey will be considered and incorporated into our Human Resources Equality and Diversity action plan, which forms part of the Single Equality Scheme we launched earlier this year.”