Micro Focus Australia’s Sydney location has teamed up with Protégé, a leading mentoring programme focused on the professional development of women Singapore, Australia and Dubai, for the launch of its inaugural mentoring program in Sydney to support the advancement of women in leadership.

Protégé is a multi-faceted, interactive development program aimed at talented and motivated women (mentees) and experienced senior executives (mentors) of both genders. The nine-month program which concludes end of this year, provides a holistic approach, including one-to-one mentoring, skills’ building and unlimited networking opportunities to help women advance their careers and prepare for senior leadership roles. To date, it has mentored more than 1,200 young women leaders and developed 600 senior executives as mentors.

Sarah Atkinson, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Micro Focus, says: “As part of Micro Focus INSPIRE, our corporate social responsibility program, Micro Focus is committed to helping address the lack of diversity in the technology industry starting with the classroom and leading to the boardroom. Teaming up with Protégé is an exciting opportunity to further expand this ambition by enabling opportunities for growth and development for both women who are driving their leadership development and the senior executives who are mentoring them.”

Through the program, mentees will develop their leadership and business skills plus focus on enhancing their self-confidence to speak up and to speak out, and build resilience. In addition, they will have opportunities to build a strong and supportive network of both peers and senior executives who will be able to give them insights and guidance on how to best manage both personal and business challenges.

Mentors will become more practised at mentoring and developing women from a broad range of industries and sectors, while opening the door to more advanced leadership opportunities and giving back to the community.