Mentees and mentors on The FA Kickstart: Leaders Mentor Programme supported by Barclays came together for the first time at Wembley last week in a key part of the course.
The FA and Barclays launched the initiative earlier this year, aiming to provide aspiring leaders from historically underrepresented groups within the football industry with the opportunity to gain valuable insight, guidance and support from experienced professionals in order to develop their leadership experience and become leaders of the future.
The programme, which started this month, will focus on building soft skills including topics such as confidence-building, problem-solving, critical thinking, presenting skills, communication and empowerment.
The event at Wembley offered everybody associated with the course the opportunity to meet for the first time, with two of Kick It Out’s leaders, CEO Samuel Okafor and COO Hollie Varney, talking through their own leadership journeys.
Mentees received an introduction their mentoring groups, enjoyed a fireside chat on Women's and Girls' football with The FA’s Women’s Development Manager, Rachel Pavlou, and a Q&A with mentors.
Supported by mentoring specialist organisation Guider, all mentees will embark on the 9 month programme to develop their skills. Mentees come from a range of backgrounds across the football industry including professional clubs, County FAs, The Football Foundation, Women in Football and many other related organisations.
Geoffrey Gulzar, course participant, said:
"I currently work at Southampton Football Club, looking after all operations on the player pathway in the women's academy. This is a great place to start for someone with ambition to reach the top in terms of leadership in football.
"It's been great to meet everyone from The FA, who have spoken to us about their journeys and how mentors supported them to get to the positions they are in.
"It's been really interesting to hear the facts and figures around people from different backgrounds, working in sports and mainly football. Hopefully this course can give people from different backgrounds the best possible chance."
Dal Darroch, Head of Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Programmes at The FA, said:
"This is driven by The FA in our efforts to retain as many people in the game as we can. Statistics tell us sometimes if you belong to a historically underrepresented group, you’re more likely to leave your role in football in order to progress your career. This programme is about helping individuals currently working in middle-management working towards senior positions and equipping them with the right skills to progress.
"We are aiming to develop leadership skills and addressing things like imposter syndrome. They're going to be working with mentors and then coming back into us to receive education and training from experts on specific topics.
"It's been a really successful day. Everyone now knows each other and we've had some really good speakers from Kick It Out and lots of interesting perspectives from different viewpoints."
