Keychange and @shesaid.so were excited to continue their mentoring collaboration, we.grow, which provided the 2022 Keychange participants with one-to-one mentoring throughout the following year! Mentoring is a unique and powerful tool to accelerate careers, create supportive networks and develop skills for both mentors and mentees.
A total of 70 Keychange participants signed up for the mentorship program that lasted from February 2022 - September 2022. Mentorship pairs were expected to meet a total of 2 hours a month, arranged as decided in their pairs. shesaid.so delivered the project which included; finding the mentors, pairing with participants needs, onboarding all mentors, overseeing the mentorship managers, troubleshooting any issues and evaluation of the programme.
Overall the program was a huge success and development for both mentors and mentees. Here are some key stats from our feedback survey:
Mentors
71% of mentors felt the experience widened their professional network
89% of mentors felt it had increased their confidence
79% of mentors felt it increased their industry knowledge
86% of mentors felt it had increased their skills
Mentees
84% of mentees felt the experience widened their professional network
62% of mentees felt it had increased their confidence
78% of mentees felt it increased their industry knowledge
74% of mentees felt it had increased their skills
Overall the mentoring has been extremely successful for many of the pairs, with huge learnings and confidence gains on both sides of the relationship. The positive feedback for mentees focused around the increase in knowledge and the safe-space provided, away from their workplace, a space to be honest about their experience and get honest feedback in return.