NEWS: The Grundvig project WE:MENTOR was approved. The project started in august 2010 and ends in july 2012.

Information about the project:

The project WE:MENTOR brings together experienced programme co-ordinators and less experienced co-ordinators of mentoring programmes (particularly focused on women) together in order to share knowledge and best practice in order to increase the potential quality of programmes provided for both mentors and mentees.
Main aim is to encourage participants to combine their new knowledge of these methods and ideas for future activities and implement them in new lifelong learning projects. A series of practical workshops will run throughout the partnership, facilitated by partners with the most experience in that particular field. Possibilities like mentoring volunteers, ICT tools for future mentors and program leaders will be introduced and encouraged them to use these tools and therefore bring more innovation and variety into the field of mentoring.
The project has the potential to lead to greater European co-operation between mentoring co-ordinators and their organisations, mentors and female mentees across Europe. Through sharing knowledge and experiences gained in different countries and cultures, the partnership will also develop greater awareness of the cultural experiences of mentors and female mentees across Europe which will hopefully lead to greater understanding of differences as strengths.

Running mentoring programmes (and in particular those focused on women) involves specialist experience and expertise which is often costly and timely to acquire through formal training and education. In addition, mentoring programmes are often run by social and voluntary organisations where individuals may be trainers or individuals from a variety of non-related occupations. As a result many mentoring programmes are run by inexperienced co-ordinators who often have to learn 'on the job'. Whilst this can be an effective method for learning, it can be time-consuming for the learners (co-ordinators) and can mean that best practice is not embedded in the programme as there is not the opportunity for the co-ordinator to ensure they are following best practice approaches or guidelines, usually through lack of awareness.
Due to the wealth of information available on mentoring in an academic sense, it is often difficult for co-ordinators to find sources of information and training aimed at providing 'hands on' approaches to learning about co-ordinating mentoring programmes to ensure the best experience for mentors and mentees. There is therefore a need to bring together experienced programme co-ordinators and less experienced co-ordinators of mentoring programmes (particularly focused on women) together in order to share knowledge and best practice in order to increase the potential quality of programmes provided for both mentors and mentees.

Also, partners of the project have found in their discussions that mentors and mentoring programs use new innovative and non-traditional methods for mentoring rarely and reluctantly. So we want to introduce different possibilities like art therapy and ICT tools for future mentors and program leaders and to encourage them to use these tools and therefor bring more innovation and variety into the field of mentoring. What is more, it is very difficult to write projects about innovative methods ( ICT tools, mentoring volunteers) if the writer is not so familiar with the subject. WE:MENTOR therefore aims to encourage participants to combine their new knowledge of these methods and ideas for future activities and implement them in new lifelong learning projects.

Projektbüro für innovative Sozialpolitik (projectoffice for innovative social policy), Austria   website:  ProjectOffice
NGO Öökull, Estonia
Inova Consultancy ltd, United Kingdom
deutscher ingenieurinnenbund e.V. (German association of Women Engineers), Germany   http://www.dibev.de
NGO Regional Resource Center – CENTRAS, Romania

Greek Women's Engineering Association (EDEM) www.edem-net.gr


This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.