Trade Union Women Mentoring Programme

The Mentoring Programme organised for women of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) provides them with a mentor to develop essential leadership skills. Additionally, it strives to inspire other women to join the unions thus providing a much-needed gender balance in a male dominated union.

The union chose six proactive and experienced female unionists as mentors to twenty-four mentees that met the criteria of strong interest, capacity and developing experience in trade union work.

The mentoring program began with a 3-day training and discussions on the overview, principle and techniques of the mentoring programme were held. Other sessions included role plays between mentors and mentees and break-out sessions in sessions to discuss and agree on time, frequency and means of holding regular meetings. It was agreed that regular activity reports be sent to the coordinator at NUPENG secretariat describing their experiences, difficulties and achievements experienced by the participants throughout the implementation of the program. Furthermore, the report must show how the Mentor and Mentee have benefitted from the experience of working together. The training was Moderator by a trained coach and assisted by Mrs Remi Ihejirika of FES Nigeria office.

The mentoring programme will be monitored and evaluated and after a year, reviewed to assess recorded success, challenges and progress.