The President and Founder of Impact Wave Initiative, Eunice Golloh, has indicated that effective mentorship is a game-changer for youth workforce development – as mentors provide individualised career advice and guidance to help mentees navigate the professional landscape and make informed career decisions.
She added that mentorship provides skill development for the youth as mentors impart practical knowledge and industry-specific skills in the process of preparing mentees for real-world challenges, in addition to introducing them to professional networks as well as opening doors to new opportunities and collaborations.
Ms. Golloh made this statement in celebrating a successful completion of the Impact Wave Initiative Mentorship Programme’s first cohort. Seventeen ladies from across the African continent – Ghana, Liberia and Kenya – participated in the Impact Wave Initiative Mentorship Programme for a period of nine months.
During the period, they had traditional one-on-one mentoring wherein a mentee and mentor are matched; distance mentoring, wherein the mentor and mentee in the mentoring relationship are at different locations; as well as group mentoring, the case wherein a single mentor is matched with a cohort of mentees.
Recounting the motivation for initiating the Impact Wave Initiative Mentorship Programme, Ms. Eunice Golloh indicated that mentorship guarantees young people that there is someone who cares about them, assures them they are not alone in dealing with their day-to-day challenges, and makes them feel like they matter.
“Research shows that mentors play a powerful role in providing young people with the tools to make responsible choices, stay in school and engage in their communities. Ultimately, mentoring connects a young person to personal growth and development, and social and economic opportunities.
“However, one in three young people will grow up without this critical asset. I can confidently say that the Impact Wave Initiative mentorship programme has been a game-changer for these amazing young women, who are ready to take on the world and make the most of knowledge acquired over the period,” she emphasised.
In recent times, large groups of people and functions of an entire society are most likely to be affected by social issues. The youth, just like adults, are not spared from the distressing effects of these social problems. Unfortunately, young people are more susceptible to these challenges which sometimes affect their emotions and physical health.
In addition, advances in technology also means that today’s youth are facing new and different social issues. Electronic media has changed or amplified some teenage troubles: digital communication has changed the way teens interact with their peers. Digital life also means that many teens lack essential interpersonal communication skills – and much of this dysfunction can be linked to the use of technology.
For these reasons, Ms. Golloh believes mentorship – which has been identified as a clear choice to assist young people as they go through challenging life transitions, from dealing with stressful changes to transitioning to adulthood – has become more important than ever. According to her, youth mentoring contributes to personal development, education and elevation in the general lives of young people.
“Mentorship existed as early as Ancient Greece in Europe then became widespread during the 1970s in the United States – mainly in training contexts and associated with important historical links to the movement advancing workplace equity for women and minorities, and was described as an innovation in American management.
“It was described as the guidance or direction given by a mentor, someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. Mentoring is a process for the informal transmission of knowledge, social capital and the psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to work, career or professional development,” she illuminated.
Without doubt, mentors play a powerful role in providing young people with the tools to make responsible choices, stay in school and engage in their communities. The President and Founder of Impact Wave Initiative revealed that with a mentor, young people are 55 percent more likely to enrol in college; and 55 percent to 78 percent are more likely to volunteer regularly and make more positive choices.
Ms. Golloh announced her organisation’s preparedness to commence processes leading to a second cohort of the Impact Wave Initiative Mentorship Programme in 2024. The application and selection process begins January 2024, and the nine-month mentorship starts in July 2024. She urged all young ladies between the age of 18 to 30 years interested in scaling to the next level of their lives and professional careers to visit www.iiwave.org for more information on the programme.
Impact Wave Initiative is a women community-driven non-profit organisation dedicated to assisting young women build their capacities and develop skills in order to become global change-makers and make meaningful contributions to development of their various countries; and one of the pillars adopted by Impact Wave Initiative to achieve this is mentorship.
