Racial Discrimination Awareness
Building understanding, challenging racism and creating more inclusive workplaces.
Racial Discrimination Awareness is a practical and thought-provoking workplace training programme designed to help employees understand racism and racial discrimination, recognise how they can appear at work and contribute to a culture in which everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
The course moves beyond legal definitions to explore everyday workplace experiences, including racial bias, stereotyping, assumptions, microaggressions, inappropriate language and behaviours that may have become normalised.
Participants develop the confidence to reflect on their own behaviour, recognise potential racial discrimination, respond constructively as a colleague or active bystander and understand how concerns can be raised within their organisation.
Recommended course length: Half Day
Delivery: Available face-to-face or online, depending on organisational requirements.
Overview
Race is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and includes colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origins.
Race discrimination can include direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, racial harassment and victimisation. It can result from organisational decisions, policies and processes, as well as everyday interactions between colleagues.
Racial discrimination is not always overt. It may also be experienced through repeated assumptions, stereotypes, exclusion, inappropriate comments, coded language, microaggressions or different standards being applied to different people.
This course supports employees to understand these different experiences and recognise the impact they can have on individuals, teams and workplace culture.
Through facilitated discussion, realistic workplace scenarios and reflective activities, participants explore how everyone can contribute to a more inclusive and accountable working environment.
Topics Covered
- Understanding race, ethnicity, nationality and racial identity
- What racial discrimination is and how it can occur
- Direct and indirect race discrimination
- Racial harassment and victimisation
- Racism, racial bias and stereotyping
- Microaggressions and cumulative impact
- The difference between intention and impact
- Language, humour and workplace “banter”
- Intersectionality and different workplace experiences
- Power, privilege and workplace dynamics
- Recognising overt and less visible racial discrimination
- Responding as a colleague, witness or active bystander
- Raising concerns and accessing appropriate support
- Responding as a colleague, witness or active bystander
Course Outcomes
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
- Explain what racial discrimination is and how it can occur at work
- Recognise direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, racial harassment and victimisation
- Identify overt and less obvious examples of racial bias and inappropriate behaviour
- Understand the potential impact of stereotyping, assumptions and microaggressions
- Recognise why intention does not remove the impact of words or actions
- Reflect on their own language, behaviour and workplace interactions
- Respond more confidently when witnessing potentially discriminatory conduct
- Understand appropriate reporting and support routes
- Identify practical actions that contribute to a more inclusive workplace
Ready to Create a More Inclusive Workplace?
Build awareness, encourage meaningful reflection and give employees the confidence to recognise and respond to racial discrimination.
Every programme can be contextualised around your organisation, sector, workforce and internal policies.
What this course is – and isn’t
This course is:
- An awareness programme for employees
- Focused on recognising and preventing racial discrimination
- Practical, reflective and grounded in realistic workplace experiences
- Designed to encourage inclusive language, behaviour and decision-making
- An opportunity to understand different perspectives and experiences
- Delivered sensitively, without requiring participants to disclose personal experiences
- An important component of a wider organisational approach to race equality
This course is not:
- A substitute for legal advice
- A formal investigation or case-management programme
- Training on conducting disciplinary or grievance investigations
- A forum for debating the validity of people’s lived experiences
- A space for discussing identifiable individual cases
- A standalone guarantee of organisational compliance
- Designed to place responsibility for addressing racism on those who experience it
This ensures participants gain meaningful understanding while personal boundaries, confidentiality and organisational responsibilities remain clear.
Get in Touch
Every organisation has a different workforce, culture and inclusion journey.
Speak to us about adapting the programme to reflect your policies, workplace environment, reporting routes and organisational priorities.
Who is this course for?
This course is particularly relevant for:
- Employees at all levels – building a shared understanding of race inclusion and appropriate workplace conduct
- Frontline and operational employees
- Office-based, remote and hybrid teams
- Customer-facing and public-facing employees
- Volunteers, trustees and board members
- Organisations with multicultural or internationally diverse workforces
- Teams working across different communities, cultures and geographical locations
- Organisations seeking to strengthen their approach to race equality and inclusion
No prior knowledge or experience is required.
Where managers have responsibility for recruitment, progression, performance management or responding to concerns, we recommend additional manager-specific learning.
Business benefits
Investing in this training supports:
- Greater awareness of racism and racial discrimination
- Improved understanding of racial bias, stereotypes and microaggressions
- Increased confidence in challenging or reporting inappropriate conduct
- More effective active-bystander responses
- Reduced normalisation of discriminatory language and behaviour
- Stronger relationships across diverse teams
- Improved psychological safety and employee trust
- More inclusive communication and collaboration
- Greater consistency between organisational policies and everyday behaviour
- A more respectful, equitable and accountable workplace culture
Certification and materials
Participants will receive:
- Certification of completion, available on request
- A comprehensive learner resource for ongoing reference
- Practical guidance on inclusive workplace behaviour
- Information about responding to and reporting concerns
- Reflective tools to support continued learning
Organisation-specific policies, reporting procedures and support information can be incorporated where supplied in advance.
Face-to-face training
- Delivered over one half day
- Available at your workplace or chosen venue
Facilitated through discussion, realistic scenarios and reflective activities
Typically delivered to groups of up to 15 participants
Online / remote delivery
- Typically delivered as one three-hour interactive session
- Suitable for remote and geographically dispersed teams
- Includes facilitated discussion, scenarios, polls and reflective activities
- Typically delivered to groups of up to 15 participants
Group size:
- Up to 15 participants per session as standard
- Alternative cohort arrangements can be discussed for larger organisational programmes
Smaller cohort sizes provide an appropriate environment for meaningful discussion, questions and the exploration of realistic workplace scenarios.
A Sensitive and Psychologically Informed Approach
We recognise that conversations about racism and racial discrimination can affect participants differently, particularly those with personal experience of discriminatory behaviour.
Our facilitators establish clear expectations for respectful participation and create space for learning without requiring anyone to represent a particular community or disclose personal experiences.
Participants are encouraged to reflect, ask questions appropriately and recognise that discomfort can form part of meaningful learning. However, discriminatory language, the dismissal of lived experience or requests for colleagues to justify their identity are not treated as acceptable debate.
The programme focuses on awareness, responsibility and constructive workplace action.
Contextualising the Programme
The course can be adapted to reflect:
- Your equality, diversity and inclusion or anti-racism strategy
- Dignity at work, anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies
- Internal reporting and escalation routes
- Your sector and workforce demographics
- Customer, client, patient or service-user interactions
- Recruitment, development and progression processes
- Remote working and digital communication
- International and multicultural teams
- Relevant anonymised workplace scenarios
- Organisational values and expected behaviours
Any contextualisation is agreed in advance, and identifiable employee cases should not be used as training scenarios.
Part of a Wider Race Inclusion Pathway
Awareness training provides an important foundation, but meaningful race inclusion requires sustained organisational commitment.
Alongside this employee-level programme, Diversiti UK can also provide:
- Race Equality and Inclusive Management – supporting managers to recognise bias and make more equitable people decisions
- Active Bystander Training – developing confidence to challenge and interrupt discriminatory behaviour
- Inclusive Leadership – strengthening accountability and inclusive organisational culture
- Cultural Awareness and Cultural Competency – supporting effective communication across cultural difference
- Inclusive Recruitment – identifying and reducing bias throughout recruitment and selection
- Equality Impact Assessments – evaluating how policies, decisions and services may affect different communities
- Policy and Procedure Review – strengthening clarity, accessibility and organisational alignment
- Organisational Inclusion Diagnostics – identifying systemic barriers and priorities for action
- Race Equality Action Planning – translating evidence and learning into measurable organisational commitments
Together, these services can support a consistent approach to awareness, behaviour, leadership, policy and systemic change.
Why choose Diversiti UK?
Diversiti UK delivers practical and engaging workplace learning across equality, diversity and inclusion, cultural competency, leadership, mental health and organisational development.
Our programmes move beyond passive awareness, giving participants opportunities to reflect on realistic situations, understand different perspectives and identify actions they can apply in their everyday working lives.
We approach conversations about race with sensitivity, honesty and a clear focus on responsibility and constructive change.
As a Community Interest Company, we have a strong social purpose and reinvest our profits into initiatives that support marginalised people and communities.
Find out more or book a course
Let us help you build understanding, challenge racial discrimination and create a workplace in which colleagues from every racial and ethnic background can feel respected, valued and able to contribute.
We will work with you to understand your organisation, workforce and priorities before confirming the most appropriate delivery approach.
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