EMPOWERING THE PIPELINE: DEVELOPING A HUMAN-CENTRED MULTI-LEVEL MENTORSHIP FRAMEWORK FOR WOMEN IN DESIGN & ENGINEERING

This paper presents the development of a Human-Centred Multi-Level Mentorship Framework designed to empower women in design and engineering. Despite growing awareness of the need for diversity, women in engineering continue to face challenges related to career progression, and a lack of tailored support. This research uses human-centred design principles to create a mentorship model that addresses these issues by placing the experiences and needs of women at the core of its development. The project focuses on gathering and analysing real-world mentorship experiences through a series of focus groups and interviews with female students, academics, and industry professionals. By exploring their insights on mentorship, academic and career obstacles, and support mechanisms, the research aims to understand the critical elements of effective mentorship from a human-centred perspective. These qualitative findings will inform the creation of a practical resource aimed at fostering impactful mentorship relationships that support women’s success in design and engineering fields. The resource will focus on: Empowering Women: Exploring mentorship frameworks to build confidence and self-advocacy. Clearer Career Progression: Offering guidance on defining career paths and navigating opportunities within the industry. Building Confidence: Encouraging mentees to set and achieve professional goals, increasing their self-assurance in technical and leadership roles. Through this resource, we aim to support women’s advancement, strengthen their professional networks, and create a supportive pathway for success in design and engineering. The paper details the methodology of using human-centred design to extract and incorporate user experiences into a mentorship resource and discusses how the insights helped shape a resource tailored to the unique needs of women in design and engineering.