Equal Remote Access is a 10-week programme starting the first week of April with an aim to help people overcome individual barriers and become ready for remote or hybrid working.

This free course, designed by WorkEqual in association with Grow Remote, is delivered through a combination of virtual and in-person workshops aimed at unlocking the potential for a more inclusive and fulfilling work experience.

“Together with Grow Remote and thanks to EU grant funding awarded through Pobal, in 2024 we piloted the Equal Remote Access programme,” explains Su Duff, CEO of Work Equal. “The feedback from this group is being wrapped into the first intake for 2025 in April.

“Equal Remote Access is a programme built for anybody identifying as having a disability, mental health difficulty, chronic illness or being neurodivergent, and has the potential to provide a real-world bridge between adult learning and an opportunity to enter the working world bringing inclusivity policies to life.” 

 Through a mix of practical information about remote or hybrid working, as well as a series of workshops polishing soft skills and providing useful tools, participants are gradually brought to a place where they feel ‘work-ready’.

“We would love to see a high percentage of participants in employment by year end and we are keen to hear from corporates interested to learn about how they can get involved in our Employer Community. Within this we can share best practice, consider challenges in hiring or any gap between policy and implementation, while inputting to workshop content.”

 The Work Equal 2025 Roadshow arrived in Cork in February offering a free, interactive career workshop designed to support women aiming to enter or return to the workforce. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in confidence-building exercises to help ease back into the workplace; receive 1:1 CV and interview preparation advice from the WorkEqual Cork Network of Volunteers; and get personalised tips on dressing for success in interviews.

“We were extremely happy with our Cork Roadshow, with an invited 70 women looking to enter or return to employment to join us for a very practical half day session with 35 of our volunteers and 10 speakers.” 

 Additional talks on understanding job descriptions, networking skills, managing anxiety as well as chats with WorkEqual alumni meant that every woman left equipped with new tools to help bring them one step closer to employment.

“And even more importantly, they headed home knowing they are not the only person working through the hurdles of entering the workforce; what they are experiencing or feeling is ‘normal’.” 

Such was the success of the event, a return has already been booked for Cork on May 1st. People can request a ticket through the contact page of www.WorkEqual.ie.  

Su spent her formative career as a retail buyer before moving into marketing, media and advertising for over 20 years. With a long history using her skills in leadership and for cross-industry projects, she joined WorkEqual as chief executive officer in January 2024.

“Becoming CEO felt like the perfect collation of all my work learnings and experience from three decades. No matter whether it’s strategic planning, operations knowhow or brand communications learnt across previous roles, or management skills and commercial partnership building, it certainly feels like everything has joined together with relevancy to build the next phase for WorkEqual.” 

 She adds that from a personal viewpoint, having had many commercial targets across the years, the ability to see results with concrete impact for society and the economy is highly positive, motivating and rewarding.

Gender equality is good for business and the economy. Since its founding in 2011, awareness of the free WorkEqual services has spread through word of mouth and media focus to grow year on year.

“The pandemic years however were a pivot point as until this time our services were all delivered in person. Like for all organisations, during 2020-2022 virtual meetings and services became a possibility with the normalisation of video technology. 

"The result? Our service offering was able to expand, enabling a broader network of volunteers to work 1:1 with our clients helping with mentoring, confidence building and CV/Interview preparation at a pace that is right for both.” 

 From Autumn the plan is extending to another main city, building a local network of volunteers, bringing styling service and 1:1 career chats to assist women hoping to return to employment.

“2025 looks to be the year where we’ll break records in terms of the number of women we reach with our service.” 

 The CSO highlights that 54,000 women are on the live register in Ireland presently, but this number doesn’t include people who are at home on caring duties and starting to consider their return to the workforce, Su explains. 

“When we turn our gaze towards company staff make-up, the representation for women varies according to organisation size, maturity and sector.

“Gender pay gap reporting can highlight top heavy organisations. It may be the impact of taking maternity leave having hampered promotion potential, or the sort of role available for those returning to work after some time. This can find one-time top performers having to enter on significantly lower levels than may have been hoped for when starting out on their career journey.” 

The recent Grant Thornton Women In Business Report has highlighted that gender equality strategies in companies have helped create a culture where employees feel they are treated equally, as selected by 42.5% surveyed.

“But the report also suggests that gender parity in senior management roles won’t be achieved until 2051 at the current rate of progress in Ireland. 

“At the end of the day, decision making is better when the team is not homogenous and ideally we should be representing the make up of our population. Gender parity is not only good for business but good for the economy too.” 

 Looking to the goals and ambitions for Work Equal in 2025, Su highlights the Equal Remote Access Programme is expected to assist close to 100 people who are overcoming ability or health challenges, as they move into employment, as well as approximately 250 women through the roadshow and another 250 people through a variety of workshops and 1:1 virtual services.

“Thereafter and subject to continued funding we plan to grow this reach each year. As everything we do is provided to the public for free, we are reliant on corporate partnerships to help fund this impact, in addition to any philanthropic donation or EU grants that we are successful in applying for.” 

 Therefore, to enable the results, Work Equal is keen to talk to corporate organisations that are interested in helping women back to work and people with disability or neurodiversity to become part of their staff teams.

“We regularly are approached by organisations to share information about internships and roles that have become available and during the next couple of years we’d like to build a wider corporate community around this very valuable and practical mission.”