During the 2024 APRA Conference which took place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, The Comms Avenue had the opportunity to host a Session on the importance of mentorship in the African Public Relations industry. Titled ‘Presents Meets Future: A PR Mentorship Roundtable’, the goal of the Session was to encourage senior professionals in the industry to leverage the power of mentorship to support and provide guidance to the younger and upcoming professionals.
The Session started with a presentation from our Co-Founder, Adedoyin Jaiyesimi, on why mentorship is something we must pay attention to and how the mentoring frameworks we have built and implemented across the continent have transformed the career journeys of over 500 young African Communications professionals
After the presentation, our Co-Founder, Sharon-Ann Adaigbe, moderated a panel conversation which had Eloine Barry, Esther Njangali Asiimwe and Muyiwa Akande as speakers. Through the panel conversation, they shared how they have been impacted by mentorship and why they made the decision to mentor the young professionals within their networks.
It was truly an engaging session that we believe has opened the eyes of senior professionals from across Africa on why they should become more intentional about mentorship. Here are some takeaway from the conversation:
“Mentorship is one of the critical ways to preserve the body of knowledge that we have in the African Communications and Public Relations industry. For senior professionals who have decades of experiences and understanding of things that cannot be taught in class, it is important to pass on this knowledge to the younger professionals so that they can successfully build on what those who have gone ahead have done.” Adedoyin Jaiyesimi
“While some people are fortunate enough to go through a structured programme, some others are not. But the workplace is also a great place to find good mentors. So, if you have an intern or young associate in your organisation, you can take a second look at that person and see what nuggets you can drop that can change the trajectory of their lives.” Sharon-Ann Adaigbe
“There is some much knowledge out there thanks to the internet. This means that there is a lot of technical knowledge that can be easily acquired. However, being able to learn the soft skills and having someone we can lean on and talk to when things get tough is perhaps the most valuable thing about mentorship.” Eloine Barry
“Senior Communications professionals need to be more deliberate about mentoring the young professionals. This is because some of them do not have their clear path for their careers and we can step in to guide them. I have made it part of my job description to automatically mentor whoever works with me in my department.” – Muyiwa Akande
“Mentorship requires that you pour into someone. For the profession to continue in the direction it’s going and to maintain its credibility and the standards that have been built over the years, senior professionals need to pour themselves into those that are upcoming. If that doesn’t happen, the profession as we know it might not be passed on to the next generation.”
Esther Njangali Asiimwe
