Welcome!
alta was created from a passion and desire to help all women in the aviation, aerospace and space
industry to succeed. A simple plan; ask already successful women to reach out and support less
experienced women towards their own version of success. Later in their careers, these women who
have been mentored will be encouraged and mentored to be mentors themselves, completing a
circle of positive benefit for both the individual women and the companies they work for.
We cannot believe how successful we have been! To date, we have just over 550 mentors and
mentees from across the industry, and globally; as well as several key supporting partners. We
realised, however, that we haven’t been shouting about our successes. We want to share what we
have been up to, and to offer our amazing mentors, mentees and supporting partners the
opportunity to engage more with alta and to create a wonderful mentoring community. This
newsletter, which will drop into your inbox twice a year, is our next step. Please get involved, use
our fantastic training modules and join our events.
The first step is to visit our new website altamentoring.com to find out what we have been up to, and
to check out our new training modules, library/resource centre (which includes podcasts and blogs)
and lots of other interesting news.
Do take a look and let us know if you have any comments or suggestions for our September
newsletter by 12 July.
New alta Training
The alta team have created a training resource
bank for our mentoring community. Our modules enable you to grow your knowledge of
mentoring and set the conditions for your
success as a mentor or mentee. As well as
practical hints and tips, the modules cover
topics such as ‘what are the barriers to women
progressing?’ and ‘how to break free of imposter
syndrome’. The modules are designed to get
you thinking about the barriers we sometimes
build ourselves and that others sometimes put
in our way. All modules can be found via
Our Partners
2023 saw Newcastle City Airport, London City
Airport, Bristol Airport, Signature Flight Services
become supporting partners of alta. We are
proud to have them onboard and it is reassuring
to know that our supporting partners have made a public commitment to provide support for
under-represented women across the industry.
For less than £1000 per year your company can
join the alta community, with opportunities to
host events and promote your commitment. If
you would like to know more get in touch.
Looking Back
alta held some amazing events, including:
- The Power of Networking
- The Effect of COVID-19
- The Post-Pandemic Pilot Landscape
- How to Manage the Work-Nonwork Boundary
- Charter Event: Resources for Gender Balance
and Inclusion - Sustainable Aviation @Airbus
- Women in the RAF
National Mentoring Day 2023
alta and the Royal Aeronautical Society hosted
an event to celebrate National Mentoring Day
on 26 October 2023. The evening was opened
by Kerissa Khan MRAeS. Kerissa is the
second female President of the Royal
Aeronautical Society (RAeS) since its
formation in 1866. A speed mentoring session
created great energy in the room with women
sharing their experiences and achievements.
Our keynote speaker was Katherine Bennett
CBE FRAeS, CEO of High Value
Manufacturing Catapult. Both speakers joined
Wg Cdr Christine Matthews CEng MRAeS,
Royal Air Force Engineer Officer and Chair of
the RAeS – Women in Aviation, Aerospace and
Space Committee (WAASC) and Professor
Susan Durbin FRAeS for an inclusive, honest
and inspirational panel discussion.
The Amy Johnson Lecture
Each year the RAeS host the annual Amy
Johnson Named Lecture. This event was
established to honour Amy Johnson CBE, a
pioneering English aviator who became the first
woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia in
1930 and broke a string of aviation records
between 1930 and 1936.
The 2023 speaker was Julie Garland, CEO of
Avtrain, who discussed her path to the Drone
and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) industry and
what the future holds, particularly for women in
aviation.
Civil Servants in Air
The RAF has a commitment to mentoring as
part of its drive for excellence in leadership. Its
flagship mentoring programme, MentorMe,
aligns with alta’s ethos. As a result alta steering
group was invited to present on the benefits of
mentoring, and specifically on the alta offer, to
an online Civil Servant Sit Back and Learn
forum on 7 December 2023.
RAF Whole Force personnel can watch a
recording of the session via the Tedder
Academy of Leadership or the Civil Servants in
Air comms sites on the Defence Intranet.
