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Women’s Leadership Program Cohort 7

Posted: 8 February 2021

Newsletter#2: Since their induction into the Women’s Leadership Program (WLP) the twenty Cohort #7 participants have been busy engaging in leadership skill development seminars including emotional intelligence, gender, public speaking, time management, team management, career development, and project management. Due to the COVID -19 lockdown and ongoing restrictions on group gatherings, the WLP activities have been organised online. Nevertheless, the Program has been going strong, with participants reporting they have gained a lot of valuable takeaways from these sessions.

Aside from seminars the Program provides participants unique opportunities to connect to industry leaders and learn from their experiences. In the past few months our distinguished guests have included:

  • Mr Wayne Thomson, Australian Chamber of Commerce in Mongolia (Austcham) Chair
  • Oyun Sanjaasuren, GCF External Affairs Director
  • HE Dave Vosen, Australian Ambassador to Mongolia
  • Jane Thomason, an award-winning author, CEO, technology transformation leader, and blockchain expert

WLP Speakers Series Event “Women’s Leadership in Innovation” with Dr. Jane Thomason

Dr. Oyun Sanjaasuren shared her extensive experience in leadership and the challenges of climate change, whilst HE Dave Vosen shared his personal career journey and the lessons he learned along the way. Dr Jane Thomason on the other hand introduced WLP participants to the blockchain technology and its myriad applications to solving some of the pressing issues in the world. WLP participants noted that these sessions were not only insightful but also highly inspirational.

WLP Speakers Series Event “Women’s Leadership in Innovation” with Dr. Jane Thomason

Additionally, one of the highlights of the WLP is the Community Development Projects (CDPs) that all participants work together in teams to design and implement. Based on their respective interests, Cohort #7 participants have divided into four teams, and have commenced implementation of their CDPs. These four projects are:

Education has no gender – which aims to decrease the reverse-gender gap in the higher education in Mongolia by empowering male students to improve their capability and motivation to study and ultimately to help them reach their academic aspirations. This project consists of two components including (i) a short-term campaign to raise awareness of the gender gap in higher education through public and social media, as well as a (ii) a short-term capacity building and mentorship program for selected high school male students.

Reaching out to Remote Youth – which aims to assist high school students living in Gobi-Altai province with their career choices. This project plans to provide career counseling to ~700 students and mentorship to ~100 high school students. Alongside these student focused actions, the project aims to train teachers to provide career counseling to their future students.

Courage to Change – which aims to help male students (aged between 14 and 18 years) studying at Darkhan Aimag’s Polytechnic College to improve their psychological and mental health through several initiatives including, facilitating a standard psychological counselling room, providing professional psychologist opportunities, and training sessions promoting healthy behaviors towards their goal-oriented life. The project will also raise public awareness on the importance of understanding male adolescence’s psychology and challenges related to existing traditional perspectives, through a social media campaign.

English for PWD: “Inclusivity and accessibility for people with visual impairments” – which aims to support educational inclusivity and accessibility for people with disability (PWD), specifically for visually impaired persons by motivating PWD to improve their English language skills, providing access to appropriately equipped training centers (trainer’s skills/ technical support) and raising public awareness on accessible education for PWD in Mongolia.

WLP Cohort #7 participants at “Career Development” seminar (November 7th, 2020)