A TRAINING group has been recognised for its efforts in bringing equality and diversity to its own workforce and other companies.

Middlesbrough-based TTE Technical Training Group, which delivers apprenticeships to companies across the North East, has been given the Equality Standard accreditation by Equality North East.

The group was highly commended in the 2010 North East Equality Awards after being selected as a finalist in the Award for Employers of between 51 and 250 Staff category.

The award showed TTE’s efforts to attract a diverse workforce in gender, ethnicity and learning disabilities. TTE was particularly praised for its “Girls Allowed” events, which are held to encourage the number of women entering the engineering sector.

In addition, Equality North East also highlighted TTE’s plans to address shortfalls and improve provisions to support and attract a diverse workforce.

Steve Grant, TTE managing director, said: “I am very proud that TTE has achieved this accreditation. TTE strongly believes in equality and diversity in the workplace and, as a result, promotes its courses and career opportunities to as wide an audience as possible.

“This has been demonstrated through holding annual events such as ‘Girls Allowed’ which have been a great success in attracting female students to pursue an apprenticeship.

“We also continue to build solid relationships with schools, colleges and employers throughout the region to ensure every young person is well informed of the opportunities we can make available to them.

“TTE is fully committed to ensuring that we lead the way in promoting equality and diversity through our recruitment and ongoing training process. The quality standard will increase awareness of the benefits apprenticeships can bring to an even wider and more diverse future workforce.”