Promoting Women in Leadership Positions in the European Chemical Industry

Vocational Training to Support Women in Management Positions - Picture

Leonardo Partnership Project 2013 – 2015

Between July 2013 and July 2015 the VAA (Germany), CFE-CGC Chimie (France), AMPS (United Kingdom) and Ledarna (Sweden) – representing male and female managers and professionals of the chemical industry within their respective countries – together with the FKI GmbH (Germany) have successfully finished a Leonardo Partnership project funded by the European Commission.

As the main result the partners have developed the syllabus for a Europe-wide workshop for managers and professionals in the European chemical industry to promote women in leadership positions and to help them to successfully pursue a management career.

WORKSHOP SYLLABUS

The resulting workshop syllabus has been developed by the partners in close exchange and interaction with female managers, who have had a successful career in the chemical industry, and with HR representatives from a number of companies in the chemical industry in Europe.

One of the critical results of the partnership has been that in order to increase the number of women in leadership positions in the chemical industry and to support their careers, it is paramount to teach and qualify both female and male managers to understand the underlying mechanisms that have so far prevented an increase of women in the sector, and to understand the advantages and necessary steps that everyone in a workplace has to take to change that situation.

The intention and structure of the workshop is thus twofold:

The workshop shall teach both male and female managers and professionals within the chemical industry the following skills indispensable for the sector’s future:

Knowledge and understanding of the business case for a genuine approach to Diversity and Inclusion, with particular focus on the promotion of women
Knowledge and understanding of the promotion and support of women in leadership positions
Knowledge and understanding of strategies to implement and enable this promotion
Knowledge and understanding of, as well as the ability to critically evaluate the impact of demographic change on the chemical industry and the employment potential of women in this context

The workshop shall empower women within the European chemical industry to define and pursue their individual career paths into positions within the middle and higher management tiers through the introduction and understanding of a range of initiatives and possibilities, including:

analysis and understanding of actual barriers and potential success factors for women’s careers in management positions
identifying and using good and best practices
effectively using and establishing networks
effectively using mentoring opportunities
exploring women-specific leadership styles
exploring possibilities for continued improvement of skill sets and use of career services
understanding and handling interpersonal gender-related issues at the workplace
understanding different company cultures
improving self-assessment

The partners would like to stress that many of the aspects discussed are just as relevant and interesting for male managers.

Coach Handbook and Teaching Material

In addition to the workshop syllabus the partners developed a handbook for the coach in order to enable any qualified teacher to actually lead and run the workshop.

Furthermore the partners developed detailed teaching material for the workshop, including a PPT presentation with numerous examples and illustrations, an extensive bibliography, as well as an analysis of the returned results of a questionnaire developed by the partners and sent out to a large number of female managers in the chemical industry in the four participating countries.

In order to assure the quality and usefulness of the workshop syllabus, the material and the coach handbook, two test-runs of the workshop have been organised by the partners during the lifetime of this partnership, and the results have been optimised on the basis of these test.

Two Versions of the Syllabus

Finally it was important for the members of the partnership that the workshop syllabus can be used in different contexts. Thus the partners developed two versions of the workshop:

1. A version that will be used by the four associations and the FKI when organising seminars for their membership with participants from different companies

2. A version that can be used for groups of employees within one company, ideally in cooperation with the HR representatives of these companies associations and companies