wanting to participate in a Springboard programme – but now we get lots of women asking to join. “What’s helped, in Saudi Arabia, is that the
Government agency, TVTC, accredited the programme in 2014,” she explained. “It can be difficult for a non-Saudi Arabian course to become accredited but, since the Springboard programme received that accreditation, colleges throughout the kingdom can offer it. “Every time I conduct a Springboard programme I see the difference in the participants,” said Al-Abdali, “and, every time, it benefits my development as well. Every Springboard programme works well – regardless of the participants’ backgrounds and levels of experience.” In June, Lahham Haidar, Saleh and Al-Abdali,
formed a three-woman delegation to the UK on a study tour – sponsored by The British Council and SBC. On their tour, these three women shared insights with Hannah Boschen, a Springboard trainer at the University of Oxford. In addition to discovering how the programme is being delivered in the UK, they discussed the importance of having a worldwide learning community establishing and maintaining standards. They interviewed Susha Chandrasekhar, a
trustee and legal counsel with The Fawcett Society, in London, gaining insights on campaigning for women’s rights, closing the payroll gender gap and the stages that all such campaigns go through. They also visited the Royal Mail, which currently has 11 in-house trainers who have delivered the Springboard programme to some 1,000 women employees. Royal Mail instituted the programme when the company’s CEO, Moya Greene, realised that women occupied only 20 per cent of leadership positions in the company. Later, the women met Baroness Prashar, the
Deputy Chair of The British Council, to talk about the British Council’s role in advancing women’s development worldwide – but they also touched on how women in the UK are narrowing the ‘gender gap’ at work. Afterwards, they met Shabana Mahmood
MP, the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood and the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Lahham Haidar commented, “Shabana explained how she, as a young Muslim woman, can build trust cross-culturally within a local community – as well as how she’s encouraging other women to engage in the political process. It all stems from a belief in the values stressed by the Springboard programme.” According to Lahham Haidar, “About ten years
ago, when I was working in The British Council’s examinations department, I was also active in the
Egypt
Egypt is the 15th most heavily populated country in the world – and 49.8 per cent of its population of 86.2m people are women. Some 85 per cent of the population is Muslim, with the majority of the remainder being Coptic Christians.
Egypt’s first experience of Springboard was in 2012. To date, some 562 women have completed the programme and Rowida Omar, a Program Development Officer at the El-Mahrousa Center for Socioeconomic Development, based at Giza, has delivered eight of the 17 programmes that have been run.
“One participant on the first programme left the programme early – but she now wants to return,” said Rowida. “That’s because her colleague – and rival – completed that programme and, armed with new-found confidence and self-assurance, gained promotion ahead of her.”
Rowida conducts Springboard programmes for academic staff in two universities as well as for women from ethnic minorities in country areas – one on Egypt’s border with Libya and the other on its border with Sudan. Of the 103 women from the universities who’ve completed the programme, three women have gone on to take up the post of Deputy Chair in their department and 76 per cent of the women now represent their faculty in interdepartmental conferences. Of the ethnic minorities’ women who’ve completed the Springboard programme, three have now run for public office, two have represented their group on Egypt’s Constitutional Committee and five of the women have started a co-operative business, making and selling biscuits.
“This demonstrates that, regardless of participants’ backgrounds and circumstances, the Springboard programme really changes women’s lives,” said Rowida.
Saudi Women’s Forum. There was some research, asking women from a variety of backgrounds what they needed. This highlighted the need for soft skills training in such things as commitment and assertiveness. Once Karen Daly-Gherabi, the Assistant Director of The British Council there, found out about SBC, it was a short step to introducing its Springboard programme, which helps women develop these – and other – skills.” Initially, Daisley ran the Springboard
programme as a pilot course – via the medium of English – Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam. “I was one of the women on the initial
programme,” said Lahham Haidar. “I liked it a lot but it wasn’t delivered in Arabic and it was heavily orientated towards British culture.” Lahham Haidar’s response was to translate the
programme into Arabic and ‘culturise’ it to make it more in-keeping with Middle Eastern culture, traditions and religion. Having done that, Lahham Haidar took the
programme to Kuwait, under the auspices of the Kuwait Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Delivered in
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