Men­tors from part­ner com­pa­nies advi­se and sup­port the par­ti­ci­pa­ting fema­le stu­dents over the cour­se of a year in their life, stu­dy and care­er plan­ning. Each men­tee is assi­gned a per­so­nal men­tor who matches their pro­fes­sio­nal focus and care­er goals.

“In addi­ti­on to tech­ni­cal topics, I also exch­an­ged ide­as with my men­tor on a per­so­nal level. In this way, we were both able to bene­fit. In the pro­cess, a fri­end­ly rela­ti­onship deve­lo­ped bet­ween us.” — Kat­rin Hart­mann, Jg. 2016/17

Men­to­ring is a pro­ven instru­ment for per­son­nel deve­lo­p­ment and the pro­mo­ti­on of young talent. The basic buil­ding block of this stra­tegy is the direct and exclu­si­ve rela­ti­onship bet­ween the men­tee and the men­tor. The men­tor sup­ports the men­tee in fur­ther deve­lo­ping her per­so­na­li­ty and expan­ding her skills. In regu­lar mee­tings, the men­tor shares his/her know­ledge and sup­ports the men­tee in per­so­nal and pro­fes­sio­nal decis­i­ons.

Men­to­ring pro­grams make a valuable con­tri­bu­ti­on to the advance­ment of women. For com­pa­nies, par­ti­ci­pa­ting in men­to­ring pro­grams is an effec­ti­ve way to attract top fema­le talent.

Within the frame­work of men­to­rING, men­tor and men­tee meet every four to six weeks for one year. Gui­dance and sup­port in sha­ping the tan­dem rela­ti­onship is pro­vi­ded to par­ti­ci­pan­ts in the form of joint events. The­re is a kick-off, a feed­back and a clo­sing event as well as a work­shop for men­tors.

All par­ti­ci­pan­ts under­go a diver­se semi­nar and trai­ning pro­gram. Topics include life and care­er plan­ning, lea­der­ship skills or work-life balan­ce. A spe­cial fea­ture is the prac­ti­cal job appli­ca­ti­on trai­ning with the par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on of per­son­nel repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from the men­to­rING part­ner com­pa­nies.

The men­to­rING pro­gram offers various events in which men­tees and men­tors are taught important skills. The­se are not only rele­vant in the men­to­rING con­text, but are important for pro­fes­sio­nal life as a who­le. This includes, for exam­p­le, job appli­ca­ti­on trai­ning, in which job appli­ca­ti­on situa­tions are simu­la­ted with per­son­nel repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from the part­ner com­pa­nies. In this way, the men­tees recei­ve valuable tips and advice on their appli­ca­ti­on as well as on the job inter­view.

A very spe­cial offer to the men­tees, men­tors is the gen­der trai­ning. The event is sub­tit­led “Trai­ning for a Dia­lo­gue in Part­ner­ship” and aims abo­ve all to encou­ra­ge peo­p­le to think about how they deal with their own and the oppo­si­te sex. During the work­shop, typi­cal fema­le / typi­cal male beha­vi­ors are reflec­ted upon in order to initia­te a chan­ge in thin­king in com­pa­nies and among the men­tees.

men­to­rING intro­du­ces par­ti­ci­pan­ts to a net­work rele­vant to their care­er and stu­dies. Just as essen­ti­al and sus­tainable it is for care­er pro­mo­ti­on to estab­lish cont­act bet­ween men­tors and men­tees but also among the among the men­tees them­sel­ves.

Net­wor­king is sup­port­ed and encou­ra­ged at men­to­rING through joint events. This is becau­se this net­work sup­ports the men­tees in start­ing their care­ers as well as to shape their their future care­ers. Like­wi­se, men­tors bene­fit from the net­work they build with repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of other part­ner com­pa­nies.

Men­tees have the chan­ce to cont­act the men­tors of other men­tees at any time. Not every men­tor is an expert on all the ques­ti­ons men­tees seek ans­wers to. For exam­p­le, not all of them have expe­ri­ence abroad, or have con­side­red how useful a doc­to­ra­te is for care­er advance­ment.

men­to­rING also offers the oppor­tu­ni­ty for per­so­nal deve­lo­p­ment. Strengths and oppor­tu­ni­ties can be reflec­ted upon with the men­tor. The men­tor also helps to rea­li­sti­cal­ly defi­ne per­so­nal goals and pro­vi­des tools to achie­ve them.