Women in TechWorks: From Competent to Confident - the power and potential of mentoring

In this Women in TechWorks session, Dr Jan Peters MBE, Director of Katalytik, explores what really makes mentoring effective for women in technology and engineering. Despite the growth of mentoring programmes, progress on retention and career progression for women in tech remains slow. Dr Peters argues that effective mentoring must be structured, evidence-based and properly resourced — with careful matching, trained mentors, clear goals, defined timeframes and shared frameworks that help participants build confidence, self-awareness and direction. The talk also examines the difference between a skills gap and a confidence gap, showing why mentoring should not be treated as a “nice-to-have”, but as a strategic tool for supporting women’s progression, strengthening leadership pipelines and improving retention across the technology sector. Recorded at Women in TechWorks: Engineering Intelligently, hosted at Arm Cambridge, this session forms part of a wider discussion on mentoring, leadership, inclusion and long-term career development in deep tech.