Women in News training programme launched in Uganda

Mar 13, 2020

The WIN Programme is building skills, and empowering women in the senior level of management in the media to master and take up leadership positions in the media houses.

LEADERSHIP    WOMEN

KAMPALA - Women in News (WIN), has launched its leadership accelerator training for the second cohort in Uganda.

The WIN programme was crafted for media in women, to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to enable them to excel in their profession.

"We will be training the women in news, in media management, to have a clear understanding of what it means when given leadership and management role in a media house. We have picked 24 for the programme in Uganda," said Jane Godia, the Manager in Charge of Capacity Building WIN Africa.

The programme also considers young women with two years' experience in the industry to use the opportunity to get mentoring from the senior women and start thinking that they too can take up the leadership and management roles in the media houses.

Godia explained that the management role is most times lost because of training as journalists and not managers.

"We open one's eyes to think of the human and finance resources needed for a media house, and also the managing of people. This programme is nine months and it is like a master's programme. No one joins our class and remains the same," she disclosed. 

The WIN Programme is building skills, and empowering women in the senior level of management in the media to master and take up leadership positions in the media houses.

"We will be linking our winners this year with past winners to get a good understanding of the WIN programme," Godia said.

The past winners will mentor present winners and also give their success testimonies. There will also be a motivational speaker to encourage the women in media management so that they can enable rise above their current positions.

Also, each trainee is tasked to come up with a project on how they can transform their media house and think beyond their job but a career, with the help of coaches (mentors).

Each trainee is attached to a personal coach to draw and open their mind to a career path.

"Many only think of their job and not the career, we want them to think beyond their job, and also learn to manage diversity in content including highlighting women issues," Godia disclosed.

"The WIN programme is a life-changing experience. Everyone who joins will never be the same.  Employers can expect to benefit from better skilled, focused and more confident staff groomed by the WIN programme," Dr Tikhala Chibwana, Director for Africa, wan-ifra WIN programme.

Last year 25 Ugandan editors and senior journalists graduated from the leadership programme, developed to promote women leadership in the media.

The WIN Programme is an initiative by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

The initiative by WAN-IFRA was informed by studies which showed that just as in many other fields of endeavour, there is poor representation of women in the media, especially at management levels.

The studies pointed out that this has a bearing on the content that the media produces and how women and children's issues are treated in the media.

The WIN programme has been running for the past seven years,  now the eighth in Africa, Middle East, and South-East Asia.

At least 500 participants have gone through it and according to testimonies; it has proved to be a high impact, sought after programme transforming careers of many women.

"We recruited more than other regions for us to catch up with them," Godia disclosed.

The Uganda WIN programme is part of the programme being held in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana.

RELATED STORIES

Top women in the media
 

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});