Bentley wraps up 1st phase of female mentorship program

MANILA: The first batch of Bentley's "Extraordinary Women" mentorship program participants visited the company's headquarters in Cheshire, England, marking the completion of the program.

The program involved eight female students in the fields of technology, engineering, design, and business at partner universities in the UK and the Middle East. It is aimed to empower the next generation of female talent.

The students had the opportunity to learn more about Bentley's products and business strategy, explore different aspects of Bentley's production processes in Crewe, participate in panel discussions with senior leaders and trainees from Bentley's early careers cohort, and pitch their proposals to colleagues from the sales and marketing team.

“Women remain underrepresented in many key areas of our business, so as part of our Beyond100 goals, we are extending our efforts to reach female students — particularly those studying STEM topics — and offer them insights into our business and the wide-range of careers that we offer,” Bentley Motors Board for Human Resources Member Dr. Karen Lange stated. “We are delighted that our first visit and mentoring program has been a success and I particularly enjoyed meeting with the students and seeing how they applied their academic insights to the business challenges we set them.  We will use their input and feedback from the week to improve our outreach activities further still.”

Sara Almarzooqi, a Computer Science student at the American University of Sharjah, described her experience being selected to participate in the program, “It’s been a privilege to have participated in the first-ever Extraordinary Women Mentoring Program and I could not think of a better way to have immersed myself in the brand while also learning more about engineering and technology from various women in the engineering team at Bentley Motors. Traveling to the UK to see the factory and meet some inspiring women behind this brand was a remarkable experience.”

Meanwhile, Sofia Ragni, an Automotive Engineering student at Warwick University in the UK, shared, “The week has been a great insight into what goes into designing and building luxury cars — and how the Bentley brand is evolving after one hundred years. It was great to find out more about the craftsmanship that goes into each car, hear from Bentley’s leaders about their own career paths and insights — and see just how central sustainability is to Bentley’s future. The experience has definitely sparked my interest in further work experience and opportunities in this sector.”

The Extraordinary Women mentorship program was the first in a series of initiatives from Bentley that will help prepare young women for leadership roles in their chosen professions by educating and inspiring them. The second chapter of Extraordinary Women will be launched in Saudi Arabia.

Photos from Bentley Motors

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