Women in Transport is often approached by businesses looking for practical ways to support and advance women in the transport sector. The Our Time toolkit is a free resource launched by the Mayor of London, developed in collaboration with Deloitte and the Greater London Authority functional bodies, to do just this. The Mayor would like to see it adopted across workplaces in London.
Our Time is an initiative designed to tackle gender inequality in the workplace and break down barriers that prevent women from reaching the top. The sponsorship programme pairs highly talented women with champions at a senior management level, either female or male, to help open up professional networks, opportunities and contacts to support progress to leadership positions within workplaces.
The programme contains two key features:
A twelve month one to one sponsorship relationship which offers the key to unlocking opportunities and networks, providing participants with a tangible launch pad towards the next stage in their careers.
A six month formal development journey which provides facilitated conversations to kick-start the sponsorship relationship, develop a strong network in the cohort and learn how to manage other barriers that may exist.
The Our Time toolkit can be used by any organisation to implement the sponsorship programme to increase representation of women at senior levels. The toolkit provides comprehensive guidelines to support the implementation and delivery including:
Selecting and pairing participants and champions
Delivering face to face events
Producing a communications plan
The toolkit provides access to a fully developed programme that will help break down the barriers preventing women from progressing in the workplace. It is a practical tool that can help businesses take their first step to proactively tackle barriers to gender parity, or can be used to complement existing talent development initiatives.
Women in Transport board members, Jo Field and Iain Smith, were part of the team that developed the Our Time toolkit. Women in Transport is delighted that the Advance mentoring programme has been included as an example of best practice.
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