Following the enthusiastic response to the Women in Aquaculture interview series in 2018, and the success of its inaugural Setting the gender agenda event at Aquaculture UK, The Fish Site has launched an innovative global pilot programme with Coach Mentoring Ltd’s support. It will offer professional mentoring to women and men in the industry. The majority of mentors are established female aquaculture professionals to enable female-led experience sharing, support networks and career advancement.
“This is a really exciting time for diversity initiatives in aquaculture,” said Ellen Hardy, Managing Editor of The Fish Site.
“We have been hugely inspired by the stories shared with us for the Women in Aquaculture series. The logical next step was to give something back, in the form of an expert panel of aquaculture mentors who can share their insights as women in the industry and make a real difference to the careers of the next generation. At The Fish Site we want to take an active role in enabling the future sustainability of the aquaculture industry. We believe that promoting the diversity of its workforce is an essential contribution.”
Aquaculture Mentoring Programme Best Practice
Coach Mentoring Ltd has supported this launch by consulting on best practice in designing, developing and running a mentoring programme. This included advice on the matching process, including the design of application forms for mentors and mentees. Due to a great response from mentees, we have also reached out to another long-standing Coach Mentoring Ltd client to advertise for more mentors in Aquaculture within their organisation.
The pilot has started with 18 matched pairs and Lis Merrick has provided virtual training for both mentors and mentees. Support throughout the programme will also be undertaken by Coach Mentoring Ltd’s Virtual Programme Manager, Jacki Mason to include check-in’s at around 6 weeks into the programme, and supervision sessions for both mentors and mentees at the mid-way point. Any learning from these touch points will feed into the programme’s ongoing formative evaluation and development followed up by a final summative evaluation at the end of a year with recommendations for future offers.
“These are opportunities for career development and greater professional recognition that women in aquaculture are crying out for,” concludes Dr Cecile Brugère, independent consultant and director of Soulfish Research and Consultancy. She went on to say:
“Practical or strategic advice and guidance to navigate career development opportunities, work-life balance, job applications, to broaden one’s network of contacts are all examples of the kinds of benefits that could be achieved with a mentoring programme, as we all know that these competencies aren’t the ones you learn in a classroom. Specific skill building – like learning to use a software, do a particular type of lab analysis, or writing an academic paper – are other benefits that can be achieved through direct interactions between mentors and mentees.”
Case Study in Mentoring
Coach Mentoring Ltd provides support to many organisations and published this case study to showcase the benefits of mentoring. So talk to us today to see how we can help your organisation with great coaching, mentoring and leadership development.
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