We asked Magda Chvalinova, Employer Brand Specialist at GasNet, what her colleagues get out of working with DofE online mentoring.
What opportunity did you see in DofE online mentoring for your staff? What is the opportunity for GasNet as a company?
From our point of view, we consider mentoring young people from the DofE as an additional opportunity and offer for the development of our employees. Thanks to the principles of the DofE, the older generation realise the importance of working on themselves throughout their lives and developing not only professionally but also in body and soul.
At the same time, we perceive that GasNet and DofE share similar values and one of them is respect. We feel that this collaboration cultivates relationships in a non-violent way and changes the culture of GasNet for the better. GasNet and DofE are also about respect in intergenerational communication, which helps to remove prejudice.
How do mentors rate this experience? How do they talk about the benefits for their personal development and the development of their work competences?
We adults go about our lives in a routine, a cycle of work and private life. Contact with young people outside our own family allows us to pause for a moment and reflect on their values and attitudes, as well as our own. Mentoring takes place in a very safe environment, so nothing prevents openness and honesty. The questions that the mentor asks the mentee, the mentee then asks himself, learning about himself and overcoming himself. We are convinced that meeting young people also helps our mentors with their moral, ethical and value growth.
Mentoring in the DofE online is, among other things, an opportunity for a very close encounter with the younger generation. How specifically is GasNet preparing to work with the future workforce?
The gas industry is and will continue to be a promising industry and we at GasNet are preparing for the future very intensively. We believe in biomethane and hydrogen, and we are adapting our activities in recruiting the younger generation accordingly. We are working with dozens of high schools and colleges to show them our industry, because we know that we will need educated professionals in the future. Our cooperation with the DofE, which works with values, is also very valuable to us. We are trying to link the two. Because we need people who are at a high professional level, but also people who know what is right.
