WEN Queensland Mentoring Programme
On 6th June 2019 The Queensland Branch of the Women in Economics Network successfully launched the first edition of the WEN Qld Mentoring Programme through and event sponsored by The School of Economics at the University of Queensland. This program provides early to mid-career women economists with the opportunity to be mentored by experienced economists to empower them building their careers in economics in academia, the private and government sector. It is intended to help support the progression of female economists into more senior roles and to make economics a more appealing profession for females to pursue.
The program matches mentees to mentors for a period of 12 months during which the mentor-mentee pair work on a specific career goal as identified by the mentee. Founding WEN Qld Chair and current WEN Qld Executive Director, Tina Rampino (UQ), managed this initiative and kept in contact with mentors and mentees to receive feedback on progress and offer support where needed.
Our mentors’ generosity allowed us to provide mentorship for women working/interested in working in academia, government or private sector. WEN Qld is incredibly thankful to all senior economists who volunteered their valuable time to support their junior peers in their career progression:
Louisa Coglan (QUT)
Luke Connelly (UQ)
Natasha Doherty (Deloitte)
Begoña Dominguez (UQ)
Andreas Leibbrandt (Monash University)
Flavio Menezes (UQ)
Pascalis Raimondos (QUT)
Alicia Rambaldi (UQ)
Fiona Ricardo (Department of Transport and Main Roads)
Benno Torgler (QUT)
Six months into the programme these were the opinions of some of the mentees who participated in the first follow-up survey:
Has the WEN Qld Mentoring programme met your expectations so far? Please provide any feedback you have on the programme.
“Yes, my mentor has been very friendly and provided advice and offered to support pathways above and beyond what I would expect from a mentor”
“I have had a very positive experience with the WEN Qld Mentoring Programme so far - it has exceeded other mentoring programs and I have very much appreciated having a mentor who is genuinely interested in where I am heading and that their passion is very apparent.”
Despite all challenges imposed by the COVID 19 pandemic, the WEN Qld Mentoring Programme thrived as evidenced by the end of the programme final survey and the emails received by participants to show their gratitude and commitment to support future editions.
Has the WEN Qld Mentoring program met your expectations so far? Please provide any feedback you have on the program.
“I found the program really helpful—it helped me to achieve my major goal and to become more certain about what path I want to take. I think the program was a great idea and I would encourage people to participate in future iterations. I think I would have met up with my mentor more times of COVID had not happened, but I am still happy with the amount of contact we have had. It is good to know I have someone I can call on for advice”
“I am more self-critical than critical of the WEN initiative - I think the initiative is great. Having said that, I think a small tweak that establishes regular meetings, starting with a fairly low-frequency minimum, would be useful. These would enable the parties to establish early rapport and, hopefully, provide a mechanism whereby the mentee will feel comfortable to ask for assistance at any time they may need it.”
