In the wake of the disproportionate impact of the Covid pandemic on women’s careers, Women in Advertising and Communications London (WACL) is launching its largest ever mentoring scheme to support the next generation of female leaders to level up. 

The move is part of the group’s Talent Sessions initiative and the four month programme will run between March and June of this year. The mentoring sessions will be delivered by over 100 WACL members. Mentors include Laura Jordan Bambach, President and CCO Grey London; Hanisha Kotecha, Chief Client Officer, Creature London; and Donna Birkett Baida, Vice President, Marketing Media Networks Disney.

The programme will run virtually over 4 months and has been designed to support women in the UK advertising, communications and media industries to inspire, support and discuss any barriers to success they may be facing. 

Dawn Paine, WACL Talent Sessions Chair, explains: “To date, over 320 women have already participated and benefited from WACL’s mentorship initiatives, as we continue on our mission to support the next generation of women on their leadership journey; campaigning for change in areas that will accelerate gender equality. Mentorship can be life-changing for both the mentor and the mentee.”

Marie Oldham Chief Strategy Officer, VCCP Media, who has taken part in the programme as a mentor, said that the experience made her think about her beliefs around issues such as maternity leave, motherhood and working. As well as consider the importance of active networking to build your career and what she described as ‘the crisis in confidence amongst brilliant, senior women’. 

She explained: “WACL is providing an amazing service in giving women a neutral space to tackle these issues, and the learnings apply to both the mentor and mentee. With this spirit of self-motivation and self-awareness, underpinned by WACL support, we can only achieve great things.”

WACL has created a film to share some of the stories of personal and professional growth from mentees across the UK who have already participated in Talent Sessions Mentoring. They come from a variety of brand, agency and media backgrounds. The film was conceived and created by Creative Director and Founder of Amoveo, Ketan Raval.

To further promote WACL’s Talent Sessions Mentoring, a £500k outdoor and social advertising campaign has been donated by Clear Channel, Ocean, Open Media and JC Decaux. This campaign goes live on 31st January, with social media and content planning developed by Stripe.

For brands, agencies and corporates the cost to participate in the initiative is £100 and for sole traders or consultants, it costs £50. The link to register is here.