Mentoring at AFBE

This year our mentoring programme has grown tremendously with our own inhouse mentoring programme, the number of partnerships and events. Our goal last year was to review our communication strategy and define a structured approach to our mentoring programme, matching process and follow up mechanisms to ensure the mentoring relationships remain productive and goal driven.

In January 2021, we concluded 39 one to one mentoring relationships and embarked on new one to one matches (mentors/ mentees), 37 in total. Reverse mentoring has been of growing interest, and we are currently looking at educating ourselves to better strengthen our offering.

Our mentoring handbook is constantly being reviewed and is currently being redesigned to make it more inclusive and accessible.

A key summary of our activities and collaborations for the year are as follows:

The InnovateHer Mentoring Programme: The programme was a detailed 6-month programme as part of our collaboration with WhenFemalesLead (WFL) in Zambia. 30 young women (2130 yrs.) working in the STEM field in Zambia were matched with professional mentors in the UK. The goals of the mentoring relationship were to promote personal and professional development, improve personal marketability and branding, and also help participants in improving communication and leadership skills. Several testimonials on the continued impact and success of the mentoring programme have been received from the mentees. The mentoring team is in initial discussion with WFL with the view of a continuance of the programme.

ORE Catapult: The AFBE-UK mentoring team in partnership with the Scotland team provided mentors and mentees to 10 employees of ORE Catapult. 5 of them were mentors who were matched with AFBE mentees and the other 5 were mentees who were matched to AFBE mentors. The mentoring relationships are ongoing and will be assessed in the new year.

Accelerate 25 Programme: We have partnered with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team on this initiative to improve diversity and inclusion within the Team. We had over 90 applicants and after thorough deliberation we chose 10 students across different universities and areas of engineering to undergo a mentoring programme with Mercedes F1 team members. This first cohort is currently undertaking a mentoring programme for the duration of six months which aims to equip them for roles and placements at the Team when opportunities arise. We launched the programme on 21st September 2022 at the Team’s Headquarters in Brackley where Mentees met their Mentors for the first time and had a tour of the factory. Other activities are in the pipeline before the end of the programme which we hope will equip the students’ mentees with the relevant tools to start and succeed in a career in Motorsport.

UCL Changemakers mentoring programme: We partnered with the Chemical Engineering department at the University College London (UCL) as part of its ChangeMakers programme. The programme was poised to provide group mentorship/ networking opportunity for 30 current students of Ethnic minority background. The students were selected from different study years and picked by the department. The overall aim was to connect them to a strong network such as AFBE-UK that can provide them with support in the following key areas. This programme is a continuity of last year programme which only involved 15 students.

Group Mentoring: The students were divided into 3 groups and spent one hour of mentoring and Q/A sessions with selected Professionals from AFBE-UK in a round robin.

Subsea7 mentoring programme: AFBE-UK Scotland partnered with Subsea 7 to kick-start their mentoring programme. Subsea7 provided three mentors who were paired with AFBEUK mentees. Two of the three mentoring relationships are reverse mentoring relationships to help Subsea7 senior management achieve their diversity, equality and inclusion goals, while the third is a forward mentoring relationship. The mentoring programme is for a duration of 6 months and was launched on the 30th of October. Several forward mentoring relationships between AFBE-UK and Subsea 7 will kick-start in January 2023.

EnQuest reverse mentoring programme: AFBE-UK launched a Reverse Mentoring programme in 2021 with EnQuest, the mentoring scheme’s purpose is to help the senior management team of EnQuest in understanding diverse lived experiences. AFBE-UK is looking to kickstart the second cohort of the Reverse mentoring programme with EnQuest in January 2023 with two candidates matched already.

Upcoming mentoring programmes: We are currently planning on starting a mentoring programme with other corporate members such as BBC, Worley, Serica Energy and Baker Hughes between Q1 and Q2 2023.

We would appreciate everyone involved in our mentoring relationships notably our professional mentors, volunteers and all corporate organisations that supported throughout 2022.

Testimonials from WFL Mentees and Mentors Mentees

“The Mentorship Program has helped me bridge the gap between engineering in class and engineering in the real world because my mentor has more than 20 years experience in engineering. The mentorship has also helped me learn how to write and revise a cv. It has also opened up my mind to the world of planning for long term goals and always remembering to write them down for reference. As a life lesson, my mentor always encourages me to take baby steps towards my development because small efforts multiply and helps one achieve their dreams and goals.” - EMILY

“I was experiencing a plateau moment in my career. I had set goals for myself that I wanted to achieve, and I needed guidance. Being paired with the right mentor is essential. I am grateful to have been paired with the right mentor at the right time. I have gotten direction from this mentorship. Through this journey, I’ve had time to reflect and grow in ways I didn’t know I needed. I have gained more confidence in my decisions and capabilities, especially as a female engineer. Moving forward, I know I’ll make a positive impact in the engineering world.” -

TADALISIKA

“My fellowship experience has been amazing thus far. I have learnt so much about myself over the sessions I have had with my mentor. I have learnt the following so far in the mentoring program. The journey has helped me align my career path. I am more aware of where I am going now and key steps I need to be taking over the years to achieve this goal. I learnt of strengths I never knew I had. It’s been a journey of self discovery and me learning what I am able to contribute to a team. Overall, I can say I am learning and glad to be paired with a mentor who shares similar interests with me.” - TUKIYA

“Thanks to WFL & AFBE-UK for the spot on mentor-mentee pairing to the powerful group mentorship sessions. My mentor has helped me realize that self-reflection and self-awareness are of great essence on my career path. I’m only half way through the program but I’m very confident in myself and what I’m capable of. I am learning skills that I need to be an effective and successful engineer so that I can add value to any organization that I join.” – ETHEL

Mentors

“The Mentoring Program has been a fantastic experience, every conversation and topics covered on each meeting has been very interesting and with a lot of contents. This experience has not only meant transmitting experience, but also an enormous learning from my side, from my perspective this mentoring process has meant a win-win process.” – Carlos

“The mentoring relationship has been brilliant, and we have now achieved almost all of the agreed objectives at the start of her project.” – Afolabi

“I think it is going well. It has been different to previous mentor relationships I have had as there is a little more structure to it. I am enjoying it so far and I feel I have learned about being a mentor through this experience” - Mike

Article by Mentoring Teams in England and Scotland bios at www.afbe.org.uk/executiveboard