Openreach and The Girls’ Network join forces to mentor girls in Merseyside

The new partnership, which will launch this Autumn, will see Openreach recruit female mentors from all parts of its business – including people in front line customer service and engineering roles as well as office-based team member and management roles.

The successful applicants will mentor 20 girls aged 14-19, based in Merseyside and the West Midlands, with face-to-face sessions taking place over 10 months. The company is also donating £10,000 to help the charity widen its reach.

Diana Roper, Organisation Effectiveness Director for Openreach, said: “We’re so excited to be partnering with The Girls’ Network – this is an opportunity for our people to share their life experience and skills and to instil a belief in these young girls that they can achieve their goals and break down barriers.

“Our mentors will also get huge benefits – we know from talking to The Girls’ Network that mentors often report a growth in confidence and accomplishment as well as benefitting from new links with other colleagues who are also part of the mentoring programme.”

The Girls’ Network believes that no girls should have their futures limited by their gender, sex, ethnicity, background or parental income and that they should be supported to realise their ambitions, to discover their self-worth, and to develop their capacity to shape their world and their futures.

Through 1-2-1 mentoring and access to a network of role models, the Girls’ Network works to inspire and empower 14-19 year old girls by building their confidence, self-esteem and aspirations and through delivering workshops on life skills and providing new access to opportunities. Many of the girls they work with don’t believe they can have high-status careers or achieve their ambitions, and may have only been exposed to narrow, stereotypical experiences of work.

Naomi Hook, Partnerships Manager at The Girls’ Network, said: “We’re delighted that Openreach has joined us in our mission to give young girls the confidence to succeed in life.

“We train and support our mentors so that they can develop their workplace skills, such as coaching and problem solving. Last year our survey found that 93 per cent of girls said their mentor helped them feel more positive about the future. We can’t wait to get started with Openreach and enable more girls to realise their potential.”

The Girls’ Network partners with secondary schools and colleges across London, Merseyside, Portsmouth, Southampton, Sussex, Tees Valley, Tyne & Wear and the West Midlands. In 2022/23 they supported more than 1,140 girls.

Yentel, a recent mentee, said: “I definitely wouldn’t be where I am without my mentor, Emma. She opened my eyes to all the possibilities for my future and put me in touch with some fantastic people who provided me with insight and practical advice.”

Research has revealed:

· Only 14 per cent of girls said they feel happy most of the time (Girl Guiding, 2021)

· 1 in 5 decision makers think men are more suited to senior management roles than women (Young Women’s Trust, 2022)

· 53 per cent of under 21s say they’ve missed out on developing skills for the future during the pandemic (Girl Guiding, 2021)

But mentoring can make a difference:

· 91 per cent of mentees said mentoring had improved their confidence;

· 93 per cent believed their mentor helped them feel more positive about the future;

· 75 per cent said mentoring helped them focus more on school work

To find out more about mentoring, visit The Girls’ Network YouTube channel or The Girls’ Network website.