SEPTEMBER 1 sees the launch of Black Valley, a new mentorship programme, founded by Leke Sholuade, to improve social mobility and the accessibility of working in the tech industry for the black community.

Black Valley works by pairing mentees up with mentors who have had similar experiences of where that particular mentee aspires to be. The mentor will work with their mentee on a one-to-one basis via weekly calls tackling the topics and areas where the mentee requires support. The mentoring programme also includes small group training and skills sessions provided by the programmes expert network of mentors and access to its wider online community for more advice and specialist areas of expertise.

Mentees

The first cohort comprises 20 black mentees who will work with their individually matched mentors over the next 8 weeks.  Black Valley has secured 50 senior level tech professionals for the programme drawn from organisations including Lego Ventures, Hitachi, Accenture and many more.

“I believe that the tech sector can and should be more diverse. So Black Valley is about giving black people opportunities.

Leke Sholuade, Black Valley founder

Leke said: “I created Black Valley to challenge the negative conversations around black people, on the back of recent high profile events in America. I wanted to form a community of allies working in senior roles in the tech industry who could work with me and our mentees to make tech more inclusive for black people.”

Black Valley aims to reduce the barriers of entry for black people to get involved in the project so the main criteria for mentees is being a black person over 18. 

“I believe that the tech sector can and should be more diverse. So Black Valley is about giving black people opportunities and access to networks. If you’re interested in tech, you could already be working in it so want to go up the ladder or looking to get into it – then Black Valley is for you.”

Drawn

The 20 mentees are drawn from across the world including Nigeria, America, Zambia, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland spanning an age range from 18 – 59.  Some of them are aspiring tech founders looking to attract investors, others have already started out and now want to scale up and some are looking to get started with a career in tech.

Temi Alabede, a Black Valley mentee said: “As a newcomer looking to get into the tech industry, I wanted to learn from someone that is knowledgeable, already experienced in the field and able to point me in the right directions when I get stuck.”

The Black Valley guided 8 week programme covers four key development areas:

• Mentoring – mentees will have weekly one hour sessions with their designated mentor.
• Tech network access – each mentee will have access to Black Valley’s wider network of 50 mentors and will be able to connect and access their networks and leverage their expertise on particular areas of the tech sector.
• Tech industry knowledge – each mentor will share their knowledge about how the industry works providing invaluable insight for each mentee.
• Tech skills – as well access to Black Valley’s own bespoke small group training sessions, each mentee will be signposted to courses and pathways that will help them to develop their technical skills.

Visit: www.blackvalley.co.uk