Where to get Tech mentorship (Platforms)

Most people have already made the conscious decision regarding the need for mentorship. They are now asking the follow up questions, Where can I get tech mentorship? How and when can I access it? What if my mentor is physically far from me, is it still feasible? What if I don’t have the money to pay for mentorship? What if I don’t get a right fit?

Let’s begin with our very own AWIT Mentorship. AWIT website has a mentorship section , ‘Become a Mentor’ and ‘Find a Mentor’ 

This section allows access to mentors and mentees across Africa. It is currently a free platform and all one needs to do is sign up/log in to access it. There is a possibility of looking through the profiles of the mentors and mentees and getting to decide who is the right fit. Further, there is an alternative of getting automatically paired to a mentor or mentee.

AWIT gives access to a community. A community of like-minded mentors and mentees to interact with, support, connect with and grow each other.

AWIT is in the process of rolling out a Mentorship Mobile App which will be accessible both on App Store and Google Play store.

What kind of mentors are available in AWIT? There two classes of Mentors, the Professionals; those building careers in fields across the tech space and the Entrepreneurs; those creating and running companies and building startups from scratch in industries across the tech space.

Qualifications of mentees (and not limited to); any aspiring female professional or entrepreneur in the tech space across Africa.

Qualifications of mentors (and not limited to);

• Have a sincere desire to be impact the career of a young African woman in tech.
• Have at least 3+ years of entrepreneurial or corporate experience here in Africa
• Have experience dealing with younger adults
• Join the growing AWIT network across Africa
• Have the ability to see solutions and opportunities
• Are available to offer at least 3 hours per week with their mentee(s)

Feel free to check out AWIT if you profile fits the description.

LinkedIn. This is a career-social platform for professionals and companies. It introduces you to the career journey of potential mentors and mentees. It mostly shows you the basic Information of their education and career journey. Looking at some of these journeys can be an Inspiration, a guide and a push in itself.
It is also an opportunity to connect and grow networks. Moreover, you can get to be a partaker of the articles, blogs and materials shared on the platform. This consequently leads you to keep abreast of the activities of your peers besides mentors and mentees.

Workplace. In most cases we tend to look so far when our answers are right In-front of us. For example, If you are already working then more likely than not, in the company you are in, you are already interacting with ‘your future self’. To bring this closer home, perhaps you are working in the same department or even under them. Maybe it’s time to pose more meaningful questions the next time you are having a chit-chat over coffee break. Be genuinely interested in their journey, how they got to where they are, what challenges they have had to overcome and what their current plans are. You will most likely have a mentor in a short stretch of time.

Universities. I think Universities are the most underrated places when it comes to seeking mentorship. We always have our eyes fixed outside these institutions while actually the help is already within. In the same vein, there is vast knowledge and variety all under one roof. There are professors who you interact with in every lecture. You have fellow students who are in the same field as you. This would be an excellent peer to peer mentorship. There are students who are doing masters, PhD’s and others doing exchange courses as well. This is audience that you will not get anywhere else. Open your eyes look around and begin with where you are and with what you have.

Online platforms. Certainly, a good percentage of us have learnt the importance of technology, especially with the COVID pandemic limiting our physical movements. We have had to embrace technology. For Instance, Technology has allowed many businesses, organizations and companies to transition to online platforms and in addition become scalable. The benefit of online platforms is their ability to bring together much more people and from practically any location with internet access. There are numerous online platforms that offer mentorship. Some offer mentorship to individuals, others to cooperates and bigger organizations. The range of the variety of online platforms covers almost the entire scale of mentorship. I mention a few here, for example, Oneuponedown, Mentorcruise, Mentorresources, My2be, Peerpioneers and YouTube, but there are many others.

Speaking of YouTube, there is countless of meaningful insight regards Mentorship. There are many TEDx talks on mentorship, with a variety of professionals sharing their journeys. There are numerous Vlogs covering Software developers (along with other tech careers), their typical schedules, their projects, challenges and accomplishments. You do not need to meet someone physically for them to inspire and guide you. Simply watching ‘Anie Akpe’ interview videos could cause a paradigm shift in your career.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.