by Isobel McDonald
A long running highlight of the NSW Young Water Professionals (YWP) is our mentoring program, and this year was no exception! The 2023 event was a wonderful success, with great engagement from across the industry.
NSW YWP would like to highlight the program as a great opportunity for members of the wider AWA community to get involved with the activities of the NSW YWP .
The program this year had 66 applicants and (unexpectedly for our new co-ordinators) more mentors than mentees! We would like to extend our grateful thanks to the AWA community for really rallying around our young professionals and volunteering your time. Our mentor pool was exceptional: 15 people with over 20 years experience, 7 executives, several directors, a board member or two… With the quality of mentors, we would encourage more than just our young water professionals to apply in next year's intake!
In classic engineer style, pairing involved a matrix with key words and pinpointing the personality provided in intros. Our coordinators tell us they have identified some key learnings to continuously improve this process! We are now progressing through the 5 stages of the mentoring cycle - building rapport, setting direction, making progress, winding down, moving on. Our first topic has been sent out – strategy mapping, useful for mentors and mentees. We’re really excited to see what discussions this sparks within our pairs, and to be on this journey with such enthusiastic participants!
Thanks again to all the mentors, mentees, and participants for attending and contributing to such an exciting program launch event. We can't wait to see you all you young professionals again next year, or at our upcoming YWP events including the yet to be announced YWP Careers Night and NSW YWP Ball in 2024.
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