Noon Centre
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Noon Centre
About us
The Noon Centre for Equality and Diversity in Business is a hub for students, connecting them with industry networks, career development, and opportunities for self-employment. Funded by Lord Noon and supported by the Noon Foundation, the centre is also a renowned leader in interdisciplinary research on workplace diversity.
Since 2012, the Centre has worked to prepare students from diverse backgrounds for the challenges of the workplace. Our goal is to support and develop students beyond their traditional degree programs. Our vision is to be a strong platform for engagement, support, and research in the interdisciplinary field of workplace diversity.
Building on the rigorous research of the School, the Noon Centre operates on a philosophy of "engaged scholarship." Our goal is to expand the conversation around workplace equality and become an international leader in this important field.
The Centre applies theoretically informed approaches to the challenges that individuals from various ethnic, racial, and gender groups face as they start and grow their careers. Our main aim is to foster a sensitive and productive dialogue with employers. We do this by strengthening collaborations between businesses and the university, and by bridging the gap between our students and the competitive job market. We help students navigate complex labour market barriers and enhance their employability.
Key objectives:
- To develop, test and promote practical support toolkits to enhance widening participation in the labour market. The Centre will also provide a skills-support programme to help recent graduates access high-end jobs, overcoming the growing challenge of limited entry into these roles.
- To create strong industry links with businesses to ensure students are equipped with the skills they need to succeed. Through structured contact with industry, students will be prepared to enter competitive job markets or be motivated and supported to launch their own successful start-ups.
- To provide critical resource support to reduce the negative impact of ethnicity or gender on job prospects. Our goal is to break down the barriers that prevent graduates from traditionally disadvantaged groups from securing high-quality jobs.
- To generate and implement innovative programmes (Global Reach and Elite Student schemes) that hone the skills and capabilities of students to enhance their chances of developing successful careers.
- To be a key player in the development of critical and dialogical-oriented research that contributes to refreshing insights or new perspectives into issues around workplace diversity and inclusiveness.
Our Team
Centre coordinator and assistant
- Aisha Labefo-Audu, Coordinator for the Centre
- Nuruzzaman Khan, Centre Coordinator Assistant
Work placement student
- Mariam Hussain
Programmes
The Centre is a support platform for students, providing various services to help them enter the job market. We offer structured business outreach, match students with employers for internships, and provide mentoring programs. We also create partnerships and provide practical life skills and signposting to broaden our students' job opportunities.
The Noon Centre is both a research hub and a dynamic space that connects students with industry leaders, career development opportunities, and self-employment resources.
The Centre offers three active student development programmes:
- Global Scholars
- Elite Scholars
- Young Black and Ethnic Professionals
All three have been highly praised by industry leaders, policymakers, and the students who have participated in them.
London scholars and civic engagement programmes
In 2016/17, the University of East London funded several London Scholars and Civic Engagement projects. Each project gave students the chance to build skills and networks, apply their knowledge in real-world situations, and collaborate with staff, fellow students, and various external partners.
Young Black and Ethnic Professionals Programme (YBEP)
The Young Black and Ethnic Professionals (YBEP) programme was a talent management initiative designed to help participants succeed as students and beyond. Its goal was to prepare them to reach their full potential and make a significant impact in their professional careers after graduating from the University of East London.
It was delivered over the course of six months, culminating in attendance at a graduation event in June 2017.
The core aim of this programme was to address and gain a better understanding of issues around the retention and progression of black and ethnic minority male students at the University of East London, a university with a proportionally high number of students from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The YBEP programme provided support and facilitated the development of skills necessary to engage within the university culture, with mentoring being central to the project. While there are a number of potential benefits to the mentoring process at all stages of life, mentoring has the potential to make a pivotal difference in someone's life. Precisely in the early stages of an academic journey, a student for whom the academic culture is a foreign territory, in which case this intervention may be the decisive factor if the student chooses to remain.
YBEP had three core components: personal mentoring, a series of practical workshops/talks as networking opportunities, and a summer internship.
Personal mentoring was central to the programme. Students met on a regular basis with their mentor to discuss any issues they may have, or worked on small tasks to aid the development of their skills to meaningfully and effectively engage within the academic culture. The mentor took on the role of an 'interpreter' of the academic culture in the process, while at the same time helping the mentee to be socialised into the academic culture, accommodating the development of the patterns of behaviour fundamental to success in higher education, gradually enabling the mentee to meaningfully engage and thrive at university.
Workshops provided practical advice on how to navigate the life of a student and succeed. This was structured to help students take their personal, academic, career or business development forward with confidence.
Networking events were structured around talks and take place in venues around London, to provide network opportunities for both students, academics and professionals. The talks were motivational and uncovered the stories behind the influencers who discussed what it takes to create change and achieve game-changing success.
Summer internships were available to students who completed the whole programme. Much of the support throughout the programme was provided by UEL Employability, to get access to a summer internship with an internal UEL employer and/or external employers. Before this took place, students attended employability skills training workshops to get help with preparing CVs and interview techniques.
Graduation ceremony
During the programme, student achievement was monitored using measures such as questionnaires and behavioural measures such as 'attendance', 'online learning portal activity' and 'module marks'. Data was collected from all participants in the project to gain a deeper understanding of the issues affecting retention and progression of BMEs at UEL.
33Sixty: UEL & Common Purpose Leadership programme
33Sixty is a leadership programme that equips aspiring Commonwealth leaders (aged 18-30) with the skills and the networks to make a difference, now.
You will work within an international group to develop solutions to some of the planet's most pressing issues. You will then get the chance to present your ideas to the Commonwealth Secretary-General as she searches for exciting new initiatives to champion on the global stage.
Mumbai/common purpose
The Scheme offers students the opportunity to be part of an exciting programme aimed at developing our global society. The scheme provides cross-cultural experiences that enable students to develop socially responsible projects that are sustainable and make a genuine difference in the lives of others.
Students increase their service and leadership skills, mentor other UEL students and attend special seminars and global service projects. Study Abroad UEL has a long history of working collaboratively with partners all over the world, creating value-added opportunities for students.
By working with our partner institutions, we offer our students the opportunity to attend summer schools, study abroad, and participate in exchange programmes.
Many students need assistance to afford the expenses associated with such programmes, so the University has created some limited bursaries for which students can apply to support them in these experiences.
Research
The Noon Centre for Equality and Diversity in Business, in collaboration with the School of Social Sciences and RDBSL, aims to foster a strong research environment. We concentrate on areas that are relevant to the strategic goals of the University of East London.
Our research is applied and collaborative, often involving cross-disciplinary teams. The main objective is to identify and implement solutions to various challenges. The Centre makes a significant contribution to research on the relationship between equality, diversity, and the workplace, with a particular focus on minority groups. We emphasise applied, impactful policy analysis and research that leads to positive change in the workplace, especially for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employees. The Centre includes several internationally recognised scholars in its core research areas.
Background
The twenty-first century has brought a rise in socio-political, economic, and environmental instability. This is due to a variety of factors, including the global financial crisis, an ageing population, climate change, increased migration, and recent humanitarian crises. In the UK and worldwide, workplaces and national job structures are changing at a rapid and dramatic pace. These shifts are a direct result of global developments in business organisation and profound, likely irreversible, changes in the world's population.
These changes have a significant impact on equality and diversity in the job market. An ageing population brings issues of age discrimination to the forefront, while immigration highlights inequalities based on race, ethnicity, and belief. Growing gaps in income and wealth draw attention back to the need for equal opportunity. Additionally, technological advancements, globalisation, and the shift towards a service-based economy worsen regional inequalities.
Due to these shifts, governments, international organisations, and academics are now focusing on equality and diversity in the workplace and job market. In the UK, a significant reform to the equality and diversity agenda occurred in 2015 when the Prime Minister introduced new "transparency" legislation. This law requires all businesses with over 250 employees to publicly report on these issues.
Since 2016, there have been increasing calls for universities and other organisations to address diversity gaps, including the Gender Pay Gap. This has led to a ripple effect, with many smaller contractors now needing to publish their diversity data to be considered for government and local authority tenders, as advised by trade and professional associations.
History
Thanks to a generous 2012 donation from the Noon Foundation, the Noon Centre for Equality and Diversity was established at the University of East London (UEL), an institution dedicated to civic engagement.
Inspired by the vision of Lord Gulam Noon, the Centre has become a source of inspiration for everyone it serves. Each year, it positively impacts hundreds of students through its diverse programmes.
The Noon Centre provides a wide range of support for students to help them succeed in the job market. We offer structured business outreach, match students with employers for internships, and provide mentoring programmes and personalised advisory support.
We also offer practical life skills through innovative programmes, such as:
- Elite Scholars: A talent management programme for BME students.
- Global Scholars: A social innovation programme with a focus on study abroad.
The generous donation was also used to establish the Bloomberg training centre at the University Square Stratford Building. This innovative facility helps students develop their skills and serves as a point of collaboration for businesses to partner with the university on initiatives that promote workplace diversity.
Each year, the Noon Centre partners with Neil Stewart Associates to host the Annual Global Equality and Diversity (GED) Conference. The event successfully brings together over a hundred professionals to discuss and debate workplace equality, diversity, and inclusion.
Key Points
- The Noon Centre for Equality and Diversity was established in 2012 through a generous donation from the Noon Foundation
- The Noon Centre focused on upskilling students and providing transformational experiences that increase their confidence and employability
- Annual GED conference sponsored by the Noon Centre
- Repositioning the Noon Centre could be at the forefront of shaping the policy agenda in the UK on issues of workplace equality and inclusiveness
- UEL continues to support the student engagement that has been successful through the Noon Centre, along with the Bloomberg training centre
- Engagement with business, employers and the wider policy-setting domain where Lord Noon was an advocate for equality and diversity.
- UEL aims to create a policy, research and training centre that could impact real change in the UK through informing, educating, training and influencing legislation that would address the issues around workplace biases.
