Creating Choices, Goldcorp’s mentorship and training programme for women
Creating Choices is the brainchild of Anna Tudela, VP Regulatory Affairs and Corporate Secretary of Goldcorp
It is built around the following modules:
- How to build self-esteem
- Dare to dream/develop your dreams – women tend to be practical and focus on the essential, “they become a checklist” – this limits them and prevents them to look at the whole picture of an organisation and how they can add value to their company and contribute to its growth
- How to take initiative/unlock power of your voice so that you are heard
- How to properly put your ideas forward and be understood – call to action
- How to portray yourself as a leader, develop yourself personally and professionally
How does it work in practice when there are so many different sites globally? Goldcorp trained 67 people from across all of their operations as facilitators and they were then able to train the women at their sites so that no one has to travel, everyone can benefit and costs stay low. So far 1200 have graduated from the course.
Now, Goldcorp is putting the finishing touches to Growing Choices, a new training programme aimed mostly at middle management to senior executives, however, any previous graduate of Creating Choices can access it too. All training courses are no longer just for employees and are being made available also to contractors.
Growing Choices will be launched in January 2015. Goldcorp is committed to continuing both programmes even during these belt-tightening times.
This new course contains the following modules:
- How do you initiate powerful conversations/small talk?
- Create a plan to achieve a better work/life balance
- How to leverage mentorship & sponsorship
- How to stay focused
- Career goals and objectives
- How do you network? How do you make the best of opportunities?
Goldcorp’s aim is to recruit and retain more women and to achieve that it has also participated in other initiatives
It partnered with Carleton University and two of Carleton’s research centres – the Centre for Women in Politics & Public Leadership (CWPPL) and the Centre for Research & Education on Women & Work (CREWW) to launch an advanced leadership program for women.
The new Advancing Women in Leadership Program, designed for women pursuing careers in traditionally male-dominated industries, focuses on the inner journey of authentic, creative and ethical leadership required by women to succeed in business, government and civil society in a global, diverse and interconnected world. The five-day leadership programme will be held twice a year. More info here
UBC and Goldcorp partnered to encourage women to consider careers in engineering
The UBC Faculty of Applied Science will boost the number of women recruited to and enrolled in its engineering program thanks to a gift from Goldcorp. The $500,000 gift, announced – on the eve of International Women’s Day 2014 – will establish a new Goldcorp Professorship in Women in Engineering at UBC.
The professorship focuses on promoting engineering as a creative and rewarding career. It aims to broaden the current talent by reaching out to high school students, parents, and counsellors to encourage students with aptitude in science, engineering and math to pursue a career in those fields. The professorship will help nation-wide efforts to address the skills shortage of approximately 100,000 engineers as predicted by Engineers Canada by 2020.
Engineering remains one of the last professions to see under-representation of women. Through a targeted recruitment strategy, the Faculty aims to increase the number of women enrolled in engineering at UBC from the national average of 20% to 50% over the next five years. More info here and here