OMEGA’s Mentoring Programme facilitates occupation-specific mentoring, matching skilled immigrants with business professionals who share the same skills and industry knowledge. Mentors provide advice, support, information and contacts, with the aim of assisting mentees to obtain employment relevant to their qualifications and experience. It is also an opportunity for mentors to develop their one-on-one leadership capabilities and fine-tune their coaching skills.
The aim of this programme is to provide skilled immigrants with the much needed social capital to access the New Zealand labour market – many have the ‘can do’, they just need the ‘know how’. It also seeks to change the way businesses value the skills newly arrived professionals bring to our labour market. The mentees who enter the programme possess the education, experience and language skills needed to excel in the workforce. All they are missing are the connections and local knowledge that can only be gained from real-life experience.
The mentoring assists internationally trained professionals in non-regulated1 business professions, and the programme’s main areas are IT, banking and finance, HR, engineering, sales and marketing, and logistics, but other industries are also supported. Applicants need a minimum Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent post-secondary education, have at least three year’s work experience in their field, be able to communicate in business English, and possess a CV. Each applicant undergoes a thorough screening and interviewing process before being accepted for the programme. The threshold for screening is high, and it is the intention that only work ready, skilled immigrants who are committed and eligible to work in New Zealand participate in the Mentoring Programme.
Mentees are matched with professionals in Auckland who share the same skills and industry knowledge. Mentors make a commitment of 16 hours over 16 weeks and include some of Auckland’s leading business figures. To date 80% of mentees who have completed the programme have found relevant employment.
1 OMEGA addresses barriers to employment and not the criteria required by regulatory bodies or boards.
OMEGA’s Mentoring Programme facilitates occupation-specific mentoring, matching skilled immigrants with business professionals who share the same skills and industry knowledge. Mentors provide advice, support, information and contacts, with the aim of assisting mentees to obtain employment relevant to their qualifications and experience. It is also an opportunity for mentors to develop their one-on-one leadership capabilities and fine-tune their coaching skills.
The aim of this programme is to provide skilled immigrants with the much needed social capital to access the New Zealand labour market – many have the ‘can do’, they just need the ‘know how’. It also seeks to change the way businesses value the skills newly arrived professionals bring to our labour market. The mentees who enter the programme possess the education, experience and language skills needed to excel in the workforce. All they are missing are the connections and local knowledge that can only be gained from real-life experience.
The mentoring assists internationally trained professionals in non-regulated1 business professions, and the programme’s main areas are IT, banking and finance, HR, engineering, sales and marketing, and logistics, but other industries are also supported. Applicants need a minimum Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent post-secondary education, have at least three year’s work experience in their field, be able to communicate in business English, and possess a CV. Each applicant undergoes a thorough screening and interviewing process before being accepted for the programme. The threshold for screening is high, and it is the intention that only work ready, skilled immigrants who are committed and eligible to work in New Zealand participate in the Mentoring Programme.
Mentees are matched with professionals in Auckland who share the same skills and industry knowledge. Mentors make a commitment of 16 hours over 16 weeks and include some of Auckland’s leading business figures. To date 80% of mentees who have completed the programme have found relevant employment.
1 OMEGA addresses barriers to employment and not the criteria required by regulatory bodies or boards.