Team mentoring
TiNA initiated team mentoring in cooperation with ABB in November 2003. This was meant for female engineers and engineer students at Helsinki University of Technology. The aim of this is to transfer tacit knowledge experienced women have, as they have been in working life previously, to the juniors in male-dominant industries. Experience that female graduate engineers have, is very useful and special treat for those who are newcomers in working life. At the same time students can familiarize themselves with needed role models. Ten female engineers joined this project from ABB and eight from Helsinki University of Technology. It was discovered in the group how easily women in technology loose contact with each others in a large-scale corporation and also how interesting it is to share experiences with others working inside the same company.
Topics in the team mentoring gatherings have been e.g. combining career and family, studying and working in the field of technology, rotating duties, leadership and also working abroad. It was discussed about how being a woman in male-dominant field could be a resource. Intension is to share experiences about international duties and to reflect values and operational culture in different corporations from the female engineers’ point of view. The method is simple, yet productive. There is no need for expensive courses, but discussions and mostly interactive exchange of opinions.
So far, there have been in total six team mentoring gatherings and the average turnout of participants has been twenty women. There are from two to three gatherings per year and in some of them there have been participants from TeliaSonera and Nokia.