FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 7th, 2011 (OTTAWA) – Canadian Women in Technology (CanWIT) launched Canada’s first national on-line eMentorship program for young women technology professionals today. The program encourages young women to consider careers in technology and supports those entering the workforce with advice, resources and direct access to leaders in the field.

“Women make up nearly half of the Canadian workforce, yet only a quarter of the advanced technology sector. Our sector’s ability to retain talented women is significantly low,” said Joanne Stanley, Co-founder and Executive Director, CanWIT. “We want to drastically improve those statistics with programs that support the advancement of women in technology.”

The CanWIT National eMentorship Program recognizes that access to experienced and successful industry leaders will help draw women to technology fields, promote achievements and foster communities built on success. The online component of the program allows young women to access mentors from any part of the country ensuring the most appropriate match.

“Mentors and role models are often critical to a woman’s decision to enter the technology sector and stay throughout their career,” said Suzie Labonne, Vice President, CanWIT Mentorship. “Their input helps build the necessary skills for women to succeed in their careers.”

The main components of the eMentorship Program include: diversity training workshops for corporations; an on-line eMentorship platform on BringITon.ca; mentorship workshops; and a social media site for mentees to have access to professionals and leaders in the industry who, as mentors, will offer mentoring support for their professional development needs.

Active Network, Vision Critical, and MDA are the first three companies to pilot the eMentorship program in BC. Over the next couple of months CanWIT will be monitoring their progress and obtain valuable feedback . Additional companies are expected to participate with the official launch of the program.

In Toronto, the first mentoring workshop on December 1st kicked-off the national program with Mentorship and Me. The workshop format positioned participants in an active learning situation to learn how to find a mentor and how to optimize mentoring relationships to leverage career aspirations. Similar workshops will be offered in Vancouver, Moncton, Ottawa and Waterloo in 2012.

For more information on the on-line eMentorship program, please visit:
http://canwit.workingrooms.com/

This project has been funded by Status of Women Canada.

About CanWIT

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For more information, please contact:

Emily Boucher
Director of Communications
CanWIT, a Division of CATAAlliance
eboucher@cata.ca
(902) 404-8816