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 Record Number of Women Seek Mentorship 
at AMCHAM T&T/IDB’s Women in Leadership Mentorship Programme

 


LINKAGE Q3 (2023) - LEARN, EMPOWER, SUSTAIN

A MCHAM T&T in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) launched the sixth cohort of the Women in Leadership Mentorship Programme (WILMP) on September 4th 75 women from various professional backgrounds seeking mentorship opportunities for career enhancement.

This was the highest intake of mentees since the programme began in 2017 to provide female professionals in the private sector with expert mentors aligned to their career goals. 

AMCHAM T&T CEO Nirad Tewarie said AMCHAM T&T has an established track record of having secured gender parity on the board, the appointment of two successive female presidents prior to the current president, and the hosting of the annual Women’s Leadership Conference, which will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2024. "We feel that the myriad of things that limit female participation at the highest level creates a situation where we are not getting the most value in our businesses, in our companies, in our country, and from our people,” Tewarie said. 

“If we can deal with the root causes of that, and if we can play a part and consistently shine a spotlight on this issue and do things to address it, then the impact of reducing gender inequality at the highest levels of the business and throughout society would be quite far-reaching and wide." 

Carina Cockburn, Country Manager of the IDB, outlined how the mentorship programme can provide many opportunities to increase female representation in key fields. "We have been thinking from the very beginning about how to increase women’s participation in science and technology fields", Cockburn said. "Many women are looking for careers IT, technology, research and development, organisational health and safety and economics."

Cockburn told the new mentorship cohort that there are many opportunities for women in the field of cybersecurity, which is one of the fastest-growing industries since Trinidad and Tobago is the most attacked country in the Caribbean. "It's not just about protecting our data and our systems, but the fact that we can build an industry based on training ourselves and entering into this field,” Cockburn said. "We see great potential in this program to encourage that kind of activity. And if you are a woman who is thinking or hesitating about going into this field, I think that this program could really help and encourage you because we have mentors who are making great strides in this area already." 

Attorney-at-law Sharon Christopher, a Leadership Development Coach and Motivational Speaker, delivered the feature address and said, “I am so glad to see so many women have stepped forward to mentor”, adding that when she first started her career, all her mentors were male because “at the top levels whether in banking, finance, law, in the corporate world, it was controlled by men so that my mentors were all male. Having said that, they were very good mentors.” 

Christopher recommended avoiding the pitfalls of unconscious bias, lack of respect, confidentiality and unclear expectations to establish a successful relationship between mentors and mentees. “Be open to everything and attached to nothing to really understand different perspectives.” 


The Women in Leadership Mentorship Programme will run from September 2023 through February 2024 and will provide mentorship opportunities to women across all sectors and industries, including, Science & Mathematics, Technology, Engineering and Economics, Occupational Health and Safety, etc. 

For more information on the programme, please visit our website at www.amchamtt.com or contact Rey-Anne Paynter-Mendez, Tech Community and Project Officer at rey-annepaynter@amchamtt.com.