Jump Starters By Sandra Schmid

Professional mentoring programmes help get started in a career. Ulysses appointed his best friend to be the protector of his son. He was to support young Telemachos while Ulysses was away. The name of this friend: Mentor. Today, the Mentor from Homer's epos has become synonymous with and the ideal of an older and benign counsellor. Sponsors could and can be found in all areas of education and employment: master craftsmen, doctorate supervisors - or the so-called old boys, who as alumni not only support their former fraternities financially, but also use their connections to help younger fraternity members along.

But career support systems for young scientists that functioned regardless of personal sympathies, social status or membership in a fraternity were barely to be found at German universities or companies. And old boys' networks that made it easier to get ahead in industry, science or politics often only existed for men. Professional mentoring programmes are intended to break this mould. »We want an end to cronyism, and would instead like to see greater recognition for soft skills«, says Christine Kurmeyer, chairwoman of »Forum Mentoring«. This is one reason why the first university projects in Germany in the early 90s were aimed solely at women, who were to be supported in finally breaking into male-dominated fields such as the natural sciences, and in gaining leadership roles. Many businesses also recognised the advantages of mentoring: Siemens organised an internal programme called Yolante to make it easier for promising young female employees to reach management level. Others specifically co-operated with university initiatives such as the »MentorinnenNetzwerk«, a network of female mentors.

It is estimated that there are meanwhile between 100 and 200 such programmes at German universities - and not just at large universities such as those in Berlin or Munich. Their focus varies: some remain intended exclusively for women, others are available to both sexes. Some programmes are aimed at all students of a university, some only at those in certain faculties. A few co-operate with other universities or even businesses. But the mentoring landscape is also confusing for another reason: new projects are initiated daily, while others are closed down. Overall the trend is however »constantly growing«, says Christine Kurmeyer. Not least because many federal states and the German Research Foundation provide special funding for mentoring.

One woman who has discovered what mentoring can mean is Ilka Olbrich. At the »MentorinnenNetzwerk«, a network of female mentors that specifically supports female students embarking on careers in natural science and technical subjects, the 26-year-old made the acquaintance of Gudrun Sauer, who was working as a physicist at Fresenius. »An incredible stroke of luck«, recounts Ilka. 39-year-old Gudrun Sauer not only became her mentor, she also helped make it possible that the student could write her Diplom thesis at Sauer's workplace. The principle of mentoring is simple. Younger people benefit from the experience and contacts of their elders. In practice this means that a manager supports a student or young person embarking on a career for usually one year, mainly in the decisive transition phase between degree and starting work. On professional programmes this is often accompanied by additional events: workshops on subjects such as »Soft Skills« or »Coaching« are aimed specifically at mentees and mentors; after all, many a manager with a full-time job needs a motivation to take on additional responsibility.