First EIIP Training cohort gets off to a flying start

Eighty five social impact investors are well underway upskilling, and adding to, key equality impact investing strategies in EIIP’s very first training and action learning programme.

Equality Impact Investing: From Principles to Practice kicked off online on 15 March with a great mix of action learning sets, learning modules and ongoing support. The training is using a system of buddying so each participant, who come from around the world and work on different aspects of inequality is accountable to their peer as they go through the process.

The training, described by participants as ‘thought provoking’ and with a ‘focus on intersectionality’, equips participants with practical methods to design, monitor and assess equality impact investments. It includes an application period - where trainees apply the new tools to check out how they work when managing their fund processes in practice.

EIIP Senior Associate, Rana Zincir Celal, said:

‘There’s such an energised feel to the training as this comes at time when social impact investors are hungry to really get to grips with tackling equalities that have done nothing but get wider through 2020.’

One participant said:

‘This is the best training session I've ever been part of - I've learned huge amounts already and know that I'm only at the start of my journey in this space. The academic overview of EII Strategies, maximising capabilities framework, and just generally everything the speakers covered. ‘

Another participant said:

‘The highlights were having a framework for thinking about equality in a broader sense and the clarity of the different EII strategies.’

Another said:

‘Thanks for putting this on for free, it's not something I would've got funding to go on but I think it will be transformational as a training course.’

The provision of this free training was made possible by grant funding from DCMS and The Connect Fund.