Fusion Mentoring Launch
Written by Jo Cooney, Community Development Project Manager, BIG Alliance
On Tuesday 25th October, BIG Alliance launched the second Fusion Mentoring Programme, in collaboration with Macquarie Group’s Fusion Network – an employee network group which seeks to empower colleagues of different races, ethnicities, cultures, and faiths. The launch of the event sits within an extremely important month – Black History Month where the theme for 2022 is ‘Time for Change: Action Not Words’.
This is the second year Fusion Mentoring is taking place and we have 19 mentors and mentees taking part. The programme matches young adults from Islington aged 18-25 from ethnically diverse backgrounds, with volunteers from Macquarie’s Fusion Network for a period of 6 months. The programme is designed to provide a personal, educational, and professional support system for the mentees and aims to develop their skillset and provide guidance and encouragement to navigate the next steps in their career path. The mentees shared a range of different skills they are looking to develop such as interview and application preparation, networking, leadership skills, data analysis and first steps to enter the finance industry.
Young adults from ethnically diverse backgrounds can face many barriers in achieving their full potential academically and this is no different to when they step into the workplace. The Fusion Mentoring Programme looks to address these issues and support these young adults with what can be a difficult transition into the world of work.
The evening kicked off with some introductions and a game of human bingo. Following on from this, the mentees and mentors had an opportunity to network with others and finally meet their match they have been partnered with.
Jessica Alleyne, employee at Macquarie said:
“The Fusion Mentoring Programme is one Fusion ENG’s most popular programmes for staff to take part in. Staff get the opportunity to mentor a young person, providing career advice as well as general support and guidance that a young person may benefit from. The staff are really engaged and love working with the mentees, committing to mentorship over six months. This year’s staff are enthusiastic about the programme, with this being the first year we get to have a launch event in person post Covid-19. We are once again delighted to be working with The Big Alliance and thank them for all of their support co-ordinating this programme.”
One of the mentees spoke about why they signed up and what they are looking forward to:
“I signed up to the programme because when it was explained to me, I thought it sounded like a great opportunity. I always think networking is important as you never know some time down the line, you might be able to reconnect with that person in some way. I am looking forward to meeting my mentor that I have been paired with and developing my skill set. I am also looking forward to meeting the other mentees that are taking place on the programme as it will be great to support each other throughout this journey.”
We are thoroughly looking forward to seeing what the next six months holds for these young adults and we look forward to partnering with the Fusion Network at Macquarie in the future.
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