Shell partners WIEN on learning, mentorship schemes
Sopuruchi Onwuka
Major upstream oil multinational, Shell, has entered collaboration with leading gender equity group in the energy industry, the Women In Energy Network (WIEN), to provide broader learning platforms for female professionals in the sector.
The new collaboration would see greater participation of corporate Shell in the activities of WIEN. Shell comes to table with global industry experience to prime up the skills and experience of the group’s members. The oil major would on the other hand rely on WIEN for full-loop industry practice outlook that transcends the Shell way.
President of WIEN, Mrs Eyomo Fatai-Williams, who led a delegation from the group to Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) Limited, stated that whereas the gender advocacy group commits to providing a learning platform that presents full-loop industry experience to its members in Shell, she looks forward to harnessing learning and mentorship resources available in Shell’s internal capacity building schemes.
Mrs Fatai-Williams informed the delegation’s hosts headed by the Managing Director of SNEPCO, Mrs Elohor Aiboni, that WIEN runs over 2000 hours of active learning as part of its focus on capacity building geared towards priming female professionals for full industry opportunities.
WIEN, she stated, holds strong ambition for closing glaring gender gaps in the technical profession through well thought out agenda supported by solid structures established by its Board of Trustees and Board of Directors respectively to prepare women for every role in the energy industry.
By placing significant number of school girls on its scholarship programme and bringing experienced mentors onto the same platform with rookie mentees, according to her, WIEN is building a pool of expertise that would provide the industry with sustainable skills in the medium to long term.
She called on international energy companies operating in Nigeria, including Shell, to mount WIEN’s corporate membership with the target to support the group in building capacity and providing opportunity for experience and knowledge sharing.
Beyond creating a career path for energy sector employees, she said the learning scheme also provides women in energy business mentorship opportunities that afford clear corporate governance structures and guarantee access to diverse financing channels and sustainable growth.
Mrs Fatai-Williams disclosed that some structured private equity companies rely on WIEN’s recommendations to support women owned business with non-debt financing.
In her response, Mrs Aiboni, who is also a prominent member of WIEN, noted that the group has shifted boundaries with laudable agenda for gender balance and equity in corporate and political governance in the country.
She made it clear that there is no reason why women should not head companies and agencies of government in the country, adding that WIEN members have demonstrated immense value generation across the industry value chain.
She called on Nigerians to start making changes that would allow women to participate actively in government with little or no hindrance.
On the collaboration between Shell and WIEN, Mrs Aiboni declared that Shell would take advantage of the more robust and better structured mentorship programmes hosted in the WIEN learning courses.
She called on the group to fine-tune its strategies for interface with the industry, noting that WIEN’s value proposition is yet to be clear and appreciated by greater number of female professionals in the energy industry.
At the end of the meeting, considerable number of female professionals in Shell expressed interest in picking membership of WIEN. They entreated the Executive Secretary, Mrs Asanimo Omezi, to simplify subscription processes for new and intending members of the group.
