Elmhurst launches mentoring scheme for women

8 FEATURE

www.elmhurstenergy.co.uk

Fiona Wilson, Business Development Manager

Elmhurst is delighted to announce the launch of its first mentoring scheme for women.

The pilot scheme is open to 5 mentors and 5 mentees from any strand, where participants will have the opportunity to grow their skills and confidence.

We decided to launch the scheme after seeing the success of the ‘Elmhurst Energy - Women working in energy efficiency’ Facebook Group, which provides female Energy Assessors with a platform to connect, post questions, and talk about their experiences. The group has nearly 200 members, where there are regular posts and lots of engagement. It’s open to all women working in the industry, so if you haven’t joined yet, find us on Facebook!

It soon became clear from the discussions taking place in the group that there was a demand for a mentoring scheme, where participants could get support and grow in confidence in their roles. Therefore we were very excited to open applications for the scheme on 12th July, starting with a small pilot group in the first instance with the view to opening it out to a larger group if successful.

How we got here

To give a bit of context, in 2021 we undertook a review of our membership stats and discovered that only 13.28% of our members were women. We also sent out a survey to find out what these members felt the benefits and potential drawbacks were to being a women in energy efficiency.

Over the next year we set about holding online sessions with some of our female members to talk about some of the points raised in the survey, and the steps that Elmhurst could take to help. From the conversations and feedback there were two key areas that were raised; safety and confidence.

Issues raised

Safety, particularly for those in the existing build domestic sector, was raised frequently.

The Suzy Lamplugh Trust provides safety information when lone-working and in personal

“The group has nearly 200 members, where there are regular posts and lots of engagement.”

safety so we have linked to their advice and website, where there is a wealth of information and details about apps that can be installed to help with loneworking. More information can be found on our website.

Confidence is a different thing entirely. Confidence comes from experience and being able to ask questions. We provide industry leading support for our members to call or email with any queries, but we understood that the women we were speaking to were looking for something that would connect them with one another and get advice about not just the technical aspect but the day to day of the role too. Looking to the future

I am really excited to see how this develops, and we will publish more information as we learn and decide on the next steps for the future - not just for women in energy efficiency, but for the industry as a whole.

It’s also inspiring to see great strides being made in other industries - more specifically the magnificent success of England football’s women’s side, where there has been record breaking attendance and overall ticket sales of over 500,000!

It’s always encouraging to see and talk about women working and operating in male dominated industries like our own, where stereotypes are being continually challenged. I also vowed I would get to mention the football - so that’s that box ticked!

Join the Facebook group

You can also join the women’s Facebook group (also open to nonmembers): Elmhurst Energy - Women working in energy efficiency.