EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

Chapter 5 ! Mentoring 245
3.4.2. Selection
3.4.2.1. The selection procedure
This chapter describes the selection procedure:
Mentees
The Personnel Department provided a list of all female employees who met the criteria.
On the list were fourteen women. The Vice-Chancellor sent a letter to the women,
containing information about the project, the targets and an invitation to participate.
Mentors
The steering committee selected five mentors. They too received a personal invitation
from the Vice-Chancellor and got the information documents that situated the project
and the targets. Four of the contacted potential mentors were male, one was female.
What was the result of the invitations to the mentees and mentors?
Mentees
It is important that mentees are motivated to take part; commitment to the relationship
is the key to success. Only five out of fourteen potential mentees answered they were
interested. The five candidates sent a CV and a short letter of motivation to the project
coordinator. One woman asked for a private talk before she decided whether or not
she wanted to participate. One of the five women was pregnant and due to the fact
that the programme was scheduled during her maternity leave, she eventually decided
not to participate. Four women accepted to follow the programme.
What were the reasons for refusing the invitation? Did the non-respondents already
face a threshold? An inquiry by telephone probed their motives and resulted in the
following replies:
Table 28: Reason of non-response ! Number of people/9
No time 6
No interest 3
Table 29: Ambition academic career ! Number of people/9
I do not know the possibilities 7
Rather leave for the private sector 2
The inquiry into the reasons for refusing the invitation to participate in the programme