The mentoring programme is aimed at highly qualified women who want to improve their career prospects, have set their sight on a management position in the cultural and media sector or want to enhance their position in the marketplace or wish to realise their full potential in line with their talents. All applicants should have at least ten years of work experience. There is no age limit.
Since 2017, the German Cultural Council has organised five 1:1 six-monthly mentoring rounds for a total of 130 women.
Experienced mentors, men, and women, who work in the field of design, visual arts, music, theatre, literature, dance, museums, librarianship, architecture, cultural management and politics, the creative sector, media, and film are available to the mentees per mentoring round.
They are all experts in their chosen field and want to help qualified women working in the field of culture and media to gain leadership positions and successfully cut their own path depending on their qualification – be it as free-lancers or employees, with or without children.
The personal face-to-face interaction between mentee and mentor is key to the programme.
It is all about a transfer of experience, one-to-one, analogue, face-to-face and ideally not simply one-directional. The testimonies produced by the mentees and mentors who have taken part in the programme show that it is an idea that works. The tendering for round six has already been completed.
The tendering for round six has already been completed.
The idea behind the programme
Apart from 1:1 mentoring, interaction between all mentors and mentees among one another is part of the programme. Therefore, every round starts with a network meeting because mentoring is all about communication: The aim is that mentees, through conversations with experienced professional colleagues and with one another, can tackle the challenges of their individual professional path, address difficulties and prioritise or even discard certain gaols.
In this context it is particularly important to talk to someone from the outside, which rarely happens during people’s day-to-day work but is essential in order to find one’s own path
Apart from looking after the current tandems, the coordinator organises professional development courses for the mentees, which cover job application coaching, media, and leadership training as well as regular (zoom) get-togethers with discussions about requested topics.
These offers are not only directed at the current mentees but also at all alumni because, in the long run it is about developing a sustainable network of alumni among Women in Culture & Media.
Currently there are a total of 130 tandems from five rounds. Round six involving almost 40 tandems is going to start in October 2022. Altogether, we received over one thousand applications with some of the women interested in the programme applying several times. But there was not just an enormous number of mentee applications.
As the programme has now become widely known, potential women mentors have been contacting the Project Office to express their interest in volunteering – most of them indicating that they would have liked such a programme when they started out on their careers.
Generally, however, the mentors – men and women – are contacted by the coordinator who ensures that all cultural sectors are represented, and the programme covers the entire territory of Germany.
Objectives & conception
The objectives of the programme are strategic career planning, practical support, providing a place within the cultural community for mentees and developing a network of alumni. The mentees are to benefit from the wealth of experience and the networks of high-profile professional colleagues so that, eventually, there is a greater representation of women at leadership level in the cultural and media industry and/or politics.
The mentors – men and women – artists and stakeholders in the creative industry or other cultural establishments come from various sectors and work in different federal states. They excel in their speciality, the marketplace, or the respective field of work, enjoy access to vast network of contacts, have a strong personality and are good listeners. Acting as a mentor is not solely about being a role model but asking the right questions and offering the mentees a realistic assessment of themselves, helping them on their career path as well as making their own network available to them.
The mentees should be very well trained and qualified and, ideally, have held demanding jobs for at least ten years in either the non-profit or the commercial cultural and media sector or be able to demonstrate involvement in exhibitions, participation in projects or receipt of awards. Furthermore, what they all have in common is an ambition to gain a leadership position and/or asserting themselves in the marketplace.
The German Cultural Council expects the scheme to have maximum leverage because, so far – with the exception of programmes for prospective women professors – there have hardly been any development programmes for women in the cultural and media sector who explicitly aspire to leadership positions.
Zieles
Furthermore, that period in a woman’s life is particularly important for her future career prospects as it is during those years that strategically important positions must be filled and, where necessary, integrated into family planning. It is a time when tips from outsiders are enormously helpful but rarely available during the normal day-to-day work routine.
The consultation period covers six months each during which the mentors talk to their mentees for no fewer than 12 hours, i.e., two hours per month. The first meeting should be a face-to-face encounter to get to know each other while further contacts may also take place via Skype or the telephone. Apart from engaging in conversations, they may also visit each other’s s spheres of activity or agree to see third parties or jointly attend certain events. It is obvious that mutual discretion is key.
Naturally, each tandem is free to remain in contact after the six months. The first two rounds have shown that many tandems have found a good basis and both continue to be interested in further interaction.
It is also pleasing to see that, in addition to strategic career advice, positive career developments have already emerged: desired changes of position have been successfully supported by the mentors, steps towards a freelance career have been completed, joint projects have been started, negotiations skills have been strengthened and practical advice on how to combine career and family has been given.
What is expected of mentors
• to put themselves into the mentee’s shoes and try to get an idea of their plans
• to offer advice and emotional support concerning professional matters
• to only act on behalf of the mentee after prior consultation
• to make, upon request, any existing professional contacts available to the mentees
• to find the right words to express even unpleasant truths and simultaneously provide constructive recommendations
• to act as critical but sympathetic advisors but, naturally, with due respect for the personal achievement and expertise of the mentee
Mentees as the active drivers in the mentoring relationship
• formulate their career goals and other objectives in advance and in writing
• prepare the talks and produce brief minutes afterwards
• are willing to address their own problems and concerns
• make efficient use of the mentor’s time
• provide feedback to the mentor
• keep the contact within the agreed timeframe
Implementation
The coordinator of the German Cultural Council searches suitable mentors for each round. The public tender for the mentees is published on the website of the German Cultural Council as well as of other multipliers – without mentioning the names of the mentors but with a list of the sector/function/place.
Apart from submitting the customary application documents, the mentees are called upon to formulate, on their part, their expectations concerning the programme so that the tandems are perfectly matched. Finally, the mentors choose a mentee that matches their profile from a small group of applicants.
Each tandem agrees individual goals concerning the preferred contact format, their frequency as well as personal expectations and the content they want to cover. Depending on what is required, the tandem will be supported by the Project Office. The representative of the Project Office always attends the first meeting of the tandem.
At the end of each mentoring round, the mentor, and the mentee each evaluate their interaction concerning content covered as well as the organisational framework of the programme. An anonymous evaluation serves as the basis for finetuning subsequent mentoring rounds.
Dr. Cornelie Kunkat
Referentin für Frauen in Kultur und Medien
Telefon: 030/226 05 28 – 12
Email: c.kunkat@kulturrat.de
Das Mentoring-Programm wird unterstützt
von der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien.