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The Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association (ASCTA) has advised of its commitment to a newly released Gender Equality Framework.

Developed as part of ASCTA’s recent decision to continue to scale its gender equality efforts for its community and to benefit the wider industry the Association’s board last month approved a framework which it says “will shape how we consider whole-of-system change at individual, community and cultural levels alongside increased resourcing to kickstart a plan for change”.

In a notice to stakeholders, ASCTA/Swim Australia Chief Executive, Brendon Ward advises “the ASCTA board recognise how crucial it is to support and enable the sustainable progression of women in our sport as well as the enormous opportunity gender equality represents to the wider industry.

“ASCTA’s purpose outlined within our 2021 strategy is to enable successful Coaches, Teachers and Swim Schools to achieve their aquatic aspirations and those of their community. With women representing 85% of our membership, this commitment to gender equality is a vital first step in what will be a lengthy but critical journey to enable their long-term growth and success.”

Over the coming three to six months, the Association has undertaken to complete the following steps:

• Analyse ASCTA’s own workplace gender equality efforts against benchmarked indicators and develop an action plan to take the organisation towards ‘leading practice’ standards; 
• Develop a survey of industry-relevant indicators to understand the state of play and monitor gender equality progress within the ASCTA community;
• Provide education and development opportunities to our community to enable informed industry engagement on gender equality; and
• In conjunction with industry stakeholders, develop a gender equality vision and strategy for the wider ASCTA community.

Ward added “at this point, I invite you to join our conversation as we canvas the landscape and understand existing industry gender equality efforts within swimming in Australia.

“In the short term, ASCTA’s commitment remains to its community of 36,000 Coaches, Teachers and Swim Schools. We also welcome the opportunity to expand the reach of the project to the wider swimming community through Swimming Australia and member organisations.”

ASCTA has appointed industry consultant Anna Walker to lead this project.

Organisation wanting to engage withs ASCTA on this topic are invited to contact Walker on 0412 646 080, E: anna@fromnowon.com.au

Click here to view ASCTA's Gender Equality Framework document (2MB).

Image courtesy of Zoggs.

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