WiT Mentoring Program: Information for Mentors

We all bring unique personal experiences, expertise and skills that can be incredibly valuable for someone else.

Being a mentor is a rewarding experience that gives you the opportunity to help make a difference in someone’s life – by supporting them to unlock, create and capture their true career and life potential. To guide them on their unique journey by being curious and helping them look at things differently and with greater clarity. To encourage and inspire them to tackle more challenging outcomes, goals and aspirations in future with zest, persistence and resilience.

It’s also an opportunity for you to realise your own potential by:

·       enhancing your leadership, communication and coaching skills

·       further developing your own self-awareness

·       gaining fresh perspectives and exposure to new ideas

·       forming new connections and extending your network in a meaningful way

·       being supported to learn and grow alongside a close-knit group of like-minded STEM professionals.

In addition to guiding your mentee to unpack their greatest asset – themselves! – you’ll also have the opportunity to form new friendships with other like-minded STEM professionals who are passionate about fostering and developing others.

The 12-week WiT Mentoring Program is FREE to join for mentors.

The next face to face intake of 2024 kicks off on Thursday 18 July 2024. Registrations for this intake are now open.

If you are interested in joining our second cohort of 2024, commencing in July 2024, please email us to register your interest.

How does the program work?

The 12-week WiT Mentoring Program is FREE to join for mentors. The success of this program is built with your curiosity, passion, dedication and your spirit.

Week 1 kicks-off with a full-day foundational workshop for mentors to help you jump into the program with ease. You must sign up and attend this workshop in order to be able to participate in the program. 

You’ll learn how the program works, understand your role and responsibilities as a mentor, and be introduced to evidence-based listening and questioning techniques that are crucial to being a stellar mentor.

A speed dating session is run during the day to allow you to meet all the mentees and assist in forming connections with the cohort.

You’ll also be guided by our facilitator Lauren Pollock to deepen your understanding of the relevant and meaningful outcomes you are working towards in your career and find clarity in your thinking.

Week 2

Following the workshop, our facilitators will match mentees and mentors based on their observations during the kick-off workshops and the responses to online questionnaire you will be asked to complete when you register. Mentor and mentee pairings will be announced a week after the workshop.

Weeks 3–12 is where the fun is at.

At the start of each week, you will receive a topic for the week via the WiT Mentoring Teams Channel, where you will find information, resources, and tasks to take to your one-on-one sessions with your mentee.

In your mentoring sessions you may choose to focus on the theme for that week, or tailor conversations towards your mentee’s support needs, or issues that may have come up since you last connected (or a combination of the above!). Don’t be afraid to go ‘off-script’ if your discussions lead to other challenges or topics that your mentee finds beneficial for their personal development or relevant to their current life stage or future career aspirations. The weekly themes are there to help guide and shape your mentoring conversations.

At fortnightly intervals through this program, we will all gather for a virtual coffee check in to share our experiences so far, and provide guidance, feedback and support to everyone involved.

And then, before you know it, it is Week 12 and we close with a collective breakfast to celebrate our successes and debrief on the entire experience.

Next steps

  1. Applications are now open to join the first intake, please email us to register your interest in mentoring.
  2. Complete the online questionnaire that will be sent to you shortly after registration.
  3. Save Thursday 18 July 2024, 11.00am – 5pm in your calendar, diary, smartphone, computer (or whatever you use to keep reminders and appointments!)
  4. Come to the mentor workshop on Thursday 18 July 2024 with a curious mind, ready to begin your 12-week mentoring journey.