Entitled "Breaking the Barriers – Good Practice in Mentoring: European Guidelines", this booklet presents a highly practice oriented vademecum on how to set up mentoring programmes for different female target groups. These include girls facing vocational choice towards the end of compulsory school and young women during  vocational training/education and/or the early stages of employment in male dominated fields such as science, engineering, construction and technology (SECT).  Mature women who work in male domains and wish to advance their career are another target group. The mentoring schemes also incorporate approaches for ethnic minority women that address their special needs, educational and migration backgrounds as well as intercultural assets.

Whilst conveying general guidelines on mentoring, this work book contains methodologies and approaches developed by  two Universities with vast experience in supporting young women to access career paths in SECT, a major ICT company and a resource and training centre that accompanies girls to prepare for and successfully complete initial training in non-traditional occupations. Two different categories of mentoring are demonstrated through practical examples: the developmental type where mentees volunteering to be supported by mentors to develop themselves in a relationship, usually with someone from outside the workplace and sponsorship mentoring where mentees are backed by their manager to climb the corporate ladder. The itineraries described take interested readers from step 1 which is a needs analysis of distinct female groups and/or employers to step x, which is a functioning mentoring programme that can be replicated for different target groups and in other contexts. Each chapter also contains case studies of "mentoring couples" and the main findings of the projects’ national and transnational evaluation.

The European Mentoring Guidelines give practical advice on the pros and cons of individual, group, peer and web-based mentoring and also include a glossary with gender and mentoring terminology.

The booklet was produced by the Transnational Partnership Gender and Technology linking EQUAL Development Partnerships (DPs) from the UK, Finland and Germany that were all dedicated to helping women access careers in male domains.

Justification / context:

Gender gaps on the labour market are a persistent obstacle to equal treatment of women and men in employment. Despite encouraging initiatives bringing about change in terms of sectoral and occupational desegregation, women opting for non-traditional career paths often feel as pioneers and in need of supportive environments. Mentoring has been proven to supply this kind of support.

The evaluation of mentoring programmes reveals several positive effects for the mentees, including improved self-awareness and clarity concerning the intended career path, getting familiar with female role models, and making the maximum of support and advice concerning both professional and personal issues. The mentors emphasised that the programme helped them to reflect on their own working style and daily routine, to transfer knowledge and know-how in a well targeted and strategic way and to contribute to increasing the group of female highly skilled employees and workers. Companies getting involved found that mentoring schemes helped them to attract and retain qualified female employees.

 

Breaking the Barriers – Good Practice in Mentoring: European Guidelines (EQUAL)