DiversIT Charter FAQs
On this page you will find the most asked questions about the practical aspects of the DiversIT Charter.
Didn’t find your answer? Feel free to contact us!
Any legal entity may apply if they have an IT workforce. For example, a bank which has a significant workforce of technical people may want to show how they have committed to the principles within the DiversIT Charter and may want to follow the roadmaps set out in the Bronze, Silver, and Gold certifications of the Charter.
At Bronze level, you would have at least a small number of women in technology as role models and have some current projects about women’s roles in technology and are promoting them at least during one year (e.g. on YouTube, Instagram, etc.).
At Silver level, you would have regular activities related to the increase and retention of women in the technology field within the organization and have established role moles about women’s careers and promote them at least during two years (talks in schools to encourage girls to follow a career in technology, promotion on women’s careers in technical roles, etc.).
At Gold level, you may be doing all of the above plus will have become a thought leader with regular activities at least during the last two years and leadership, inspiring other groups to work on women in tech and demonstrating the results of your initiatives (training workshops for women and girls, diversity strategies, He4She programs, other initiatives, publicizing excellent activity on this issue, etc.). You could also be supporting diversity concerns in AI, coding, or other disciplines and sharing thought leadership, propagating this across your organization or country and showing evidence of actions taken by active and inspirational Role Models.
Each stage – Bronze, Silver and Gold – is broken down into the following areas of activity or ‘themes’:
- The company, association or higher education institution’s women’s group
- Activity in support of Women in IT
- The actions being taken on Gender Equality in compensation and job roles (Policies)
- Interaction with other stakeholders
- Internal and external education
- Monitoring
- Objectives and KPIs
Don’t be discouraged if you lack activities in a particular theme, especially when applying for a Bronze or Silver certification. The assessors take into account the overall picture of activities and initiatives as well as size of the applicant’s organisation.
We are happy to clarify any questions the applicants might have, whether before or during the application.
The organisation wishing to apply should indicate their interest by filling out the contact form on the CEPIS website: https://cepis.org/diversit-charter/ . The CEPIS Secretariat then will contact the applicant with application forms and more information.
If you are not sure which level to go for, the level guide should help. The CEPIS Secretariat and the expert team will also be happy to have a call should you wish for more advice and clarification.
No. If the organisation has sufficient expertise to prove that they are working at Silver or Gold level, they may apply for this level of certification directly.
The assessment teams have two schedules of assessment annually. The spring assessment will accredit successful applicants at the start of May each year and the autumn assessment will accredit applicants at the start of November. Organisations can send in their application at any time in the year. However, to be assessed for accreditation at the start of May, the application must be submitted no later than the 1st of March and the autumn accreditation schedule expects application forms to be submitted no later than the 1st September.
Applicants will be notified by email from the CEPIS office during April or October following their application so long as the application was received by the correct date. The Assessment team will notify the CEPIS office of those applicants succeeding or failing in their applications, and emails will be sent out. Where an application is a failure, the assessors will offer positive suggestions of activities which will enhance the work in the organisation, with a view to receiving a successful application from the organisation in the next round.
CEPIS and the Assessment teams all work to the GDPR standards and will hold an organisation’s data no longer than it is required. CEPIS holds a small database of applicants and certified organisations. This will be used to notify the Certified members that they are due for recertification.
When an organisation has been awarded certified status at any level, the application form will be checked to understand whether the organisation is happy for their name and logo to be shown with their certified status on the CEPIS DiversIT Charter Website. If an organisation does not want to have their name and logo displayed in this way, it is important to clearly communicate it to the CEPIS team.
Holding the DiversIT Charter status at any level identifies the organisation as one which is supporting its female technical workforce or student cohort. For this reason, it is important that organisations re-certify to ensure that women seeking work in the organisation can trust that they will be supported equally and fairly during their tenure with the organisation. As the DiversIT Charter certification becomes trusted across Europe, women will seek it out when looking for employers or looking to do business with organisations. For this reason, it is important to ensure the quality mark that the DiversIT Charter accreditations confer.
Charter certificate holders will be required to recertify every 3 years. If the deadline for recertification is missed, the Charter certificate will no longer be valid until the time of successful recertification.
The organisation should use their original application and submit it along with additional work that has been done in each subsequent year. The organisation should verify their submission on the application form and submit in the normal way. In this way the awarding organisation can see growth, progress against KPIs and targets and momentum for women in tech.
