Editor’s note: Jackye Clayton will be one of our speakers at the next SourceCon in Atlanta on February 7th-8th, 2013. She will be talking about best practices for effective diversity sourcing.
Jackye,
I recently reviewed your Do the Right Thing Part 1 and 2 articles on SourceCon.com regarding diversity sourcing and had a quick question for you. I know that AIRS provides a Diversity Certified recruiter training course that instructs sourcers on tactics to identify and hire a diverse workforce. Are you aware of any other institutions/programs that offer such training?
Thanks,
Jill M., St. Louis, MO
Jill, thanks for your quick question. I only wish that the answer could be as quick! I have spent the past few months researching the answer because, like you suggested, AIRS could not be the only answer could it!?!? I mean, with this being such a hot topic, there is no way that there could not be another comprehensive solution. Here was what I found.
Much to my surprise, besides the AIRS program, I was not able to find another program where the focus was especially 100% focused on diversity AND sourcing and recruiting. I did however find a few alternative credentialing organizations. Here are a few online resources that I found to be interesting (Please note, I said interesting, I cannot vouch for any of the programs mentioned).
http://www.diversitycertification.org/
Offerings: Certified Diversity Professional (CDP); Certified Diversity Executive (CDE)
Cost: Approx. $1,300 for Prep Course, Study Guide and Exam
As a subsidiary of the Society for Diversity, the Institute for Diversity Certification was founded in 2009 by Leah Smiley. Mrs. Smiley currently works with a team of people who update the tests annually, review the study guides, teach the preparation courses, and assess the candidate projects.
Jackye’s notes: This looks like a super intense program. I like it because it goes further than trying to teach people not to pre judge others, to gain certification participants must do a functional candidate project to be credentialed. For the CDP you have to complete a Diversity Climate Analysis or Diversity Plan and for the CDE, you have to complete a Diversity Evaluation or Diversity Research project.
Offerings: Certified Diversity Professional (CDP) Or The High Impact Certified Diversity Professional Secrets of Success Seminar (CDP)
Cost: $995-$5,100
DIVERSITY TRAINING UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL (DTUI) is a free-standing corporate university that exists to promote cultural competence and cultural diversity expertise. To this end, we advocate for credentialing diversity professionals, leadership diversity competence and culturally competent media coverage, and in teacher education. In addition, we provide certification training, actively voice our concerns about the impact of poor cultural competence, and try to represent cultural competence models.
Jackye’s notes: Impressive International Board of directors as well as impressive client list. Has a great deal of information. Maybe I am an internet snob but, there are a few website red flags however; (Typos, outdated information, broken links etc.) BUT has several references and the creator, Dr. Billy Vaughn, PhD seems like a very smart man.
Offerings:
Cornell Certified Diversity Professional (CCDP); Cornell Certified Diversity Professional Advanced Practitioner (CCDP/AP)
Cost: Class approx. $9,000, The cost of the exam is $495
Advance individual professional growth and your organization’s success. This new Cornell Industrial and Labor Relations
(ILR) certification program provides experienced diversity professionals with a valuable credential that attests to their achievement in this fast-growing and vital field. In addition to completing advanced workshops, recipients complete a special project designed to address specific diversity work in their organization or private practice.
Jackye’s notes: Very comprehensive program. One day to 3 day programs. It can only be taken after earning a Diversity Management Certificate. Coursed must be taken in Upstate New York.
I was concerned to see that most of the training programs I saw were either really just training how to search on the internet or only targeted certain groups. In other words, they were excluding groups in their inclusion training! (Ironic right!?!?!) Remember, if your diversity initiative is just to source people from one group, you are not being inclusionary. When looking for the best training for your group, make sure they include a section for sourcers to focus inward first so that people and reflect on their own personal biases and see what could be holding them back. I will be discussing this in more detail at the sourcecon conference in Feb.
If you are looking for solid training rather than a certification program, check out some of these sites:
MDB Group – http://mdbgroup.com
Diversity Inc. – http://diversityincbestpractices.com/
Riley Guide – http://www.rileyguide.com/diverse.html
Prism – http://www.prismdiversity.com/
My new favorite website is dedicated to diversity is Best Buy’s. While this site is for a specific company, it is a great example of the content and resources that will help you attract a diverse candidate pool while training you on various groups, cultures. Make sure when visiting it you check out the sourcing section. Great tips! I totally felt the love when going through this website. In fact, I found myself seeing if they had any positions open at BestBuy that I could be a fit for! (Psst- Hey Best Buy, check out my LinkedIn profile! Call me!)
Jill, I hope this helps to answer your question a bit and gives you insight on some of the training programs you may not have known about. If any of my readers have training program ideas that you would like to share, please comment or email me at askjackye@sourcecon.com
