Does being BAME mean that I have any special skills or knowledge as a leader? The answer, of course, is no. What I do have is a particular experience - in my case, of growing up in 1960s’ and 1970s’ Birmingham, the son of a Jamaican father and English mother, and confronting on a daily basis the realities of racism. This wasn’t just the sort of racism that quietly closes doors to opportunities and sends subtle messages of exclusion. No, in those days, this was in-your-face racism. It was “hey you, wog!” racism; just as sexism was wolf-whistling and girlie calendars on the wall at work, and homophobia was vicious verbal - and sometimes physical - bullying.

Things are certainly not so bad today, but everyone who is different - who had one of what we now call the “protected characteristics” - will have experienced the depressing feeling of being made to feel unwelcome, disliked; cold-shouldered socially and at work. Being stereotyped, dealing with marginalisation and aggression, coping with not “fitting in” and not being taken seriously, finding that people respond to a caricature label about you rather than you yourself, are all things familiar not just to those of us born BAME in a majority white society, but to women, gay people, neurodiverse people, those with disabilities, those of different genders and sexual orientations, those with mental health difficulties, people from working-class backgrounds, and many others.

Background: Gavin Williamson must lead on anti-racism, says report

News: Diversifying leadership will improve college finances

Tes magazine: What FE colleges can do to improve diversity

This is what gave me the lifelong values I have brought into my roles as manager and leader. A commitment to celebrating diversity, to inclusion, to giving disadvantaged people access to opportunities, a second, third - hell - multiple chances to get on to the ladder of personal fulfilment and career success.

Tackling racism: Encouraging diversity in FE colleges

And the great thing is, there is a very broad spectrum of people working in FE who share these values. Our specific stories may be different, but the emotional experience of prejudice and discrimination is very similar, and therefore something that we can widely share.

Social mobility is in the DNA of FE. We all know that most FE colleges enrol a large proportion of students who come from economically or socially disadvantaged backgrounds. We need staff, and managers and leaders, who reflect the population we serve. And BAME professionals are a vital part of this. It’s a disgrace that we haven’t made more progress, as a sector, in achieving an ethnically diverse staff profile at all levels in our colleges, and we urgently need to put that right.

So what do we need to do? The good news is that there’s plenty of good practice to learn from - we just need to get back to doing it, consistently and with determination. First, raise the profile of careers in the FE sector amongst BAME communities - we need a national campaign to showcase the range of opportunities we can offer. Secondly, throw a big institutional arm around promising BAME staff, through training, mentoring and individual support. Thirdly, make it an expectation that every college governing body has someone on it with real equality and diversity expertise.

One other thing: please, let’s not create some sort of Disney narrative of successful multicultural Britain, not yet, and not until we’ve achieved a lot more than we have in 2021. And by the way, just as you can’t talk about sexism without referring to women, you can’t talk about racism without referring to BAME. It’s not a perfect term, but until someone comes up with something better, I’m still BAME!

So let’s all commit to supporting and encouraging more diversity in FE. It will help us all to emerge from the coronavirus stronger, clearer and more able to widen opportunities for everyone.

Andy Forbes is principal and chief executive at City of Bristol College

This blog is part of a new Collab Group initiative examining issues around black, Asian and/or minority ethnic (BAME) diversity and inclusion within the further education sector