National Trust orders non-public-facing volunteers to take diversity training

The National Trust has ordered all of its volunteers to undergo diversity training so they can learn about unconscious biases in the workplace.

The heritage body is forcing everyone, including rangers who do not work with the public, to carry out the training as they return to work from lockdown.

The 'everyday inclusion' training is run online alongside courses including fire safety and data protection.

One section on unconscious bias asks participants to look at ambiguous images and identify what they see, such as one optical illusion created by psychologists that shows both a rabbit and a duck.

Staff are told it is 'almost impossible to avoid unconscious bias when making initial judgements about people. Greater awareness of our own biases can help us review our behaviours'.

Other sections show cartoons of people of different heights standing on boxes of the same size, meaning the shortest is unable to see over a fence. The cartoon is labelled 'equality'.

An adjacent cartoon shows three people standing on different sized boxes so they are all standing at the same height. This cartoon is labelled 'equity'.

If a volunteer fails certain questions on the diversity training, the test must be taken again.