In Diverse Company, an organisation supporting businesses to develop their diversity and inclusion agendas, is launching a global mentoring programme for women; Women’s Future.
Women’s Future launches on International Women’s Day – 8th March 2019. It is being kicked off with a series of short, online interactive workshops and also live interviews hosted by Founder, Johanna Beresford with women across the world – in India, South Africa, UK and New York.
The workshops and interviews will provide more detail on why these challenges exist for women, how this mentoring programme will help to address these challenges and stories as well as experiences from mentors and mentees to help inspire others and provide a real-life view into the benefits a mentorship can offer.
The goal of the programme is to strengthen women’s economic empowerment through helping women enter and return to the workplace. Mentoring relationships will be based on the interests and industries the mentee would like to enter, and the expertise of the mentor, and will enable all participants to have a personalised and supportive mentoring experience.
The programme will support women’s confidence, increase knowledge and expertise in their chosen area, build a professional network and connections and provide a trusted environment for discussing concerns and barriers preventing access to the workplace. Women’s Future mentoring programme has an expert panel of both female and male mentors from a range of industries and across many geographies who will be matched with mentees based on their individual needs.
The programme will take place online during times that are convenient to the mentor and mentee, allowing flexible support for women around other commitments.
Johanna Beresford, CEO at In Diverse Company and Founder of Women’s Future, said, “Having worked internationally in a senior HR position for a number of corporate organisations, I have seen first hand many of the challenges women face in getting into or returning to the workplace.”
“I passionately believe that such challenges should not exist and this is why I have set up Women’s Future.”
“Now, having recently returned to work myself following the birth of my third child, I feel fortunate to be setting my own work/life balance and being able to work around my baby and continue to breastfeed.”
“Although having a somewhat flexible employer previously, this wasn’t so easy with my first two- and certainly isn’t for the majority of women returning to work following maternity leave across the globe.”
“This is one of many scenarios that Women’s Futures can support with.”
“Although it’s a programme focused on women, I have seen what a positive impact having a male champion can be for women looking to progress their career and so our team of mentors are made up of both men and women with a wide range of expertise and are on hand to begin to make returning to workplace for women a positive experience. ”
To sign up to the mentoring programme please click here and follow In Diverse Company on Instagram @in_diverse_company for updates.
There are three workshops that will take place virtually across multiple time zones on 8th March 2019 and are open to all. The workshops will last an hour and are at the following times:
- 09:30 IST/ 15:00 AEDT/ 12:00 HKT
- 14:00 GMT/ 16:00 SAST/ 15:00 CET/ 09:00 EST
- 15:00 GMT/ 17:00 SAST/ 16:00 CET/ 10:00 EST/ 09:00 CST
Live interviews will be streamed across In Diverse Company’s Instagram and Facebook channels throughout the day.
