SAGE in WORK MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME

We had planned the Mentorship Programme to be one of the main components of our SAGE in Work project with the thought that women’s participating in work life and building a long-running career could provide significant contributions to the struggle against discrimination. Through this programme, we targeted that both existing and candidate members of our association and the professional women who are members of other Soroptimist clubs in Istanbul convey their knowledge to the young women preparing themselves to be employed and became permanent member of work life.

As a result of our quest for a specialized trainer or agency to carry out the consultancy and training process of such a programme, we decided on the mentorship model created by Murat Akkaya with the Learning Partnership philosophy.  

Within the framework of this model and in line with the project targets, we put in place a structured mentorship programme, in which the women who are senior undergraduate and graduate students are matched with experienced professional women. We set up this structured programme to help young women to know themselves better, attain equal opportunities, to be prepared against the sexist practices and obstacles they may encounter, and to be strong and persistent in the work life, within the framework of the learning partner model. Learning partnership is a model based on improvement of the competencies involving mutual development rather than establishing a superior-subordinate, master-apprentice relationship, without hierarchy. Up on trainings the model was adopted soon by both mentors and mentees and was successfully completed in December.

Method

The developmental mentorship programme we preferred can be defined briefly as establishment and maintenance of a learning relationship. Among the learning pairs, the mentor is the person who assigns active role to the learning individual (mentee) in the process of self-knowledge, develop awareness and apply what she learnt through the relationship support.

Developmental mentoring relationships constitute a partnership established on mutual understanding and trust and involving privacy, and a good strategy to support the individuals pursuing their targets. The main purpose is to support independence and development of the mentee in terms of her life and career skills. Mentors offer learning support to make important transformations on the knowledge, perspectives, life skills or thoughts of mentees. In summary, mentorship programme is an assistance and sharing relationship aimed at learning and development.

The mentor spends her time, knowledge and endeavors for her mentee, who is less experienced than her, to gain the knowledge and skills required to increase productivity and success. The mentee directs her development actively with the assistance of her mentor. Mentorship programme can be conducted in four basic ways: (1) conventional one-to-one mentorship, (2) group or team mentorship, (3) peer mentorship, (4) reverse mentorship. We preferred to carry out one-to-one mentorship for the SAGE in Work Mentorship Programme.

Preparation Process

Through the SAGE in Work Mentorship Programme, we planned that the mentors and mentees gain the competencies which will ensure that they establish and maintain communication within the framework of the learning partnership model. We aimed to contribute to the mentees’ individual career development by acquiring the learning and implementation experience in the fields of establishing a relationship, self-knowledge, relationship management; to strengthen their bonds/connections with the business world by advancing together with volunteer learning partners who have life and career experience; to have the knowledge and skills to persevere in business life while acquiring the skills of overcoming the sexist obstacles and difficulties they may encounter in work life. We also ensured that the mentors reinforce their skills of managing the structured processes that can contribute to the mentees to step more firmly on the ground in the work life while prioritizing the gender equality throughout the process.

As of February 2019, we started to organize the trainings with the volunteer program coordination of Hüray Böke. Murat Akkaya customized the content of the mentorship programme in accordance with our project’s objectives. A structured mentorship program was created to cover the gender equality in work life. In this context, it was decided to establish an online library which includes -but not limited to- the sources on the topics of work, money, time, and power aspects of gender equality. 

The programme consisted of the preparation, trainings and three implementation periods. Mentor and mentee trainings were held in April. During 1st period of May-June the relationship harmony between the matched mentors and mentees were ensured; the mentees carried out a series of practices aimed at better selfknowledge and set their targets. In the 2nd period from July to September, while carrying on the regular communication, the mentees completed their planning to better put the knowledge gained during the 1st period into practice. During the 3rd period from October to December, the efforts increasing awareness on gender equality in working life were completed as well as taking concrete steps for realization of the targets decided in the 1st period.

Calls for mentor and mentee candidates were prepared in February. At the same time, a special poster was designed and shared in social media accounts, e-mails and WhatsApp groups. A programme support team was also formed. Mentor candidates from the Soroptimist clubs including SI Etiler were invited to the training. Mentee candidates were determined by the researches of our members and project team among senior undergraduate and graduate students. The candidates were nominated by assessing the Mentor and Mentee Candidate Application Forms. WhatsApp and e-mail groups were created separately for communication purposes for the Mentors and Mentees.

The Mentor and Mentee Kits, presentation documents, questionnaires, attendance sheets along with various forms and certificates were prepared before the trainings. Moreover, Measurement and Assessment Team prepared the Attitude Scale and Personal Styles Surveys to calculate resilience scores for mentees in line with our project targets. We organized the meeting kits including bags pen, notebook and documents. We searched training venue and decided two different places for mentors and mentees.

Trainings and Implementation Process

Mentoring Skills Trainings were completed on April 13-14, 2019. Active and candidate members (17) of SI Etiler as well as members from Boğaziçi (1), Istanbul (2), Levent (1), Marmara (1), Pendik (4), Şişli (2) Soroptimist clubs participated in the trainings. Two registered participants could not be present, a total of 28 women became entitled to receive mentorship certificate.

25 out of 32 registered candidates attended the Mentee Training held on April 27, 2019 and received their certificates. Training was delivered by Murat Akkaya. Attitude Scale and Personal Styles Survey were applied to mentees in order to calculate baseline resilience scores.

Upon completion of the trainings, 25 mentor and mentee were matched by the programme coordination team to conduct 6-8 sessions during 7 months until December 2019, considering their skills, field of expertise, hobbies, expectations from the programme and neighborhood they live in, as they have indicated in the application and the profile preference forms filled during the trainings.

In order to facilitate the management of the process, a Group Coordinator affiliated to the Programme Coordinator was designated for every 6 pairs. Murat Akkaya carried out the process together with Gül Üstün, Azize Namdar, Hüray Böke, and Group Coordinators Sinem Ilgın, Serap Ilgın, Azize Namdar and Özlem Şimşek.

On April 28, 2019, the mentors and mentees met by giving their training certificates to each other and conducted their first sessions on the same day. Following the pairing meeting, mentors and mentees were given contact details of the Group Coordinators. Supportive documents were also shared.

The mentorship programme was implemented as planned. (1) Harmony in relationship, self-knowledge, target setting interviews were made in the period of May-June. Sources such as creating life circle; creating objectives, targets, personal development plan; 4 steps model; our vision future picture; SWOT analysis development; our learning styles; our behavior styles; our values; Netherlands vocational preference inventory were shared for the purpose of supporting these sessions. The interviews were monitored on a monthly basis by the coordination teams. Everybody was called and their needs for support were questioned; experts, information, additional sources and documents were provided when necessary.  

Evaluation of Mentorship Programme

We evaluated the mentorship program using two different approaches. Resilience scores of mentees were calculated by administration of two questionnaires namely Attitude Scale and Personal Styles Survey for Adults at the beginning and at the end of the mentorship programme. We also administrated the same questionnaires to the mentors as control groups. Health status of the programme was monitored by a series of questionnaires filled at the beginning and before each evaluation meetings, evaluating expactations and measured success status of the programme. Moreover, oral and written comments and remarks of mentors and mentees were gathered.

Mentorship Programme Assessment Meetings

The first assessment meeting was realized at the end of the 1st period, on June 27, 2019. Process assessment questionnaires were sent to the mentors and mentees by the coordination team prior to the meeting. The questionnaires were assessed by Murat Akkaya. Personal observations and opinions were obtained from every individual at the meetings organized separately for mentors and mentees. Problems were identified and solutions were generated as a result of assessment of the first quarter on individual and collective basis. Survey results were showing that, by the end of the 1st period, an average of two sessions were completed, and the process was 90% successful feedback.

At the end of the first period, one pair of mentor and mentee notified that they decided not to continue the programme following discussions with the Coordination Team. In parallel with the results of the evaluation meeting, both resources related to gender equality and tools such as Career Evaluation and Aims, Life Circle, Adjectives Circle were shared with mentors and mentees. Also, all mentors and mentees participating in the programme were invited to The Various Aspects of Gender Equality Training, held on October 19, 2019.

Our second assessment and closing meeting was held on December 4, 2019. Prior to the meeting, we directed the questionnaires again. The results were assessed by our consultant and coordination team, and shared with the mentors and mentees in separate sessions. Success status of the programme is summarized in Table 4. Moreover, the mentors and mentees gave feedback by submitting their personal observations, opinions and comments about the process in their own sessions.

Mentees

*We set very good targets to reinforce my infrastructure before directly switching to job search. My mentor suggested sources concerning these targets. I’ll start to materialize them soon. My mentor created a strong supervision mechanism, and this was what I exactly expected from the programme. 

*I think we have a lot in common with my mentor. I see myself as her previous self, and benefited greatly from her knowledge and experience. Her broad network may even have brought me from 0 to 6.

Mentors

*I learned to be flexible, calm and sympathetic when the mentee is not working and/or not endeavoring for her target.

*I learned the youth perspective and the innovations in technology. I found the opportunity to follow the agenda from the youth perspective.

As a project target, we anticipated a 10% increase in the average resilience score of mentees measured by personal styles and attitude scale surveys. Assessment results of tests applied at the beginning and at the end of the programme show us that we completed the mentorship programme with 10 point (19%) rise in mentees’ resilience scores in terms of personal power. This suggest that mentees’ capacity of overcoming the sexist attitudes that they may encounter in work life has increased.