The Female cross-industry Mentorship Program 2021

This year, SwedCham was delighted to for the first time launch together with SwedCham member CAPA HR Consulting our first Female cross-industry mentorship program virtually.

Background to the initiative

The discussion on how to strengthen female leadership in Southeast Asia emerged as a topic at SwedCham’s Regional HR Managers’ Forum. Despite the topic being a priority within most organisations, many are struggling to make progress. Female representation in top leadership positions in most Swedish companies in Singapore is still low and the pace of change is painfully slow. For this reason, the idea of creating a mentorship program to support up-and-coming female leaders in a cross-industry setting was born.

The initiative

In October 2021, SwedCham Singapore launched together with CAPA HR Consulting´s Lotta Patrickson and Agneta Olsson from the SwedCham’s People & Culture Committee, our first cross-industry female mentorship program. The program was open to SwedCham Main Partners, Partners, and Corporate Members free of charge. The vision for the female mentorship program was to:

• Create a solid cross-industry network and a professional sounding board for female rising stars in SwedCham’s business community
•  Raise the bar for female leadership development in Singapore
• Promote Swedish leadership values and strengthen ties between Swedish companies in Singapore

The mentorship program is planned to run over 6 months in groups of four: one mentor and three mentees. The group will meet face-to-face once a month, during working hours, for a 2-hour session. The mentees will learn not only from their mentor but also from each other. Given that all participants come from different industries, the mentor, in turn, will also get new perspectives from interacting with the mentees.