Women in News Leadership Accelerator Programme

Application Deadline: January 14th, 2022

Women in News Leadership Accelerator Programme is an intensive nine-month long career and leadership programme open to women journalists and editors working in Africa. Journalists and editors who take part in the programme acquire new skill sets and build their capacity through a combination of Coaching, Training, Mentoring and Networking.

WIN Leadership Accelerator is an intensive, nine-month long career and leadership programme for journalists and editors working in Africa, the Arab Region and Southeast Asia. The programme accepts 100-150 applicants, annually. Women media professionals from the following countries are eligible to apply: Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe (WIN Africa), Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine (WIN Arab Region), Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia (Southeast Asia).

Successful applicants to the WIN Leadership Accelerator programme benefit from the following:

One-on-one coaching to create a three-to-five year career roadmap

Develop your career management plan and learn how to implement it. Coach and mentee meet individually on five occasions with follow-up sessions. Our coaches use global best practices, customised specifically for the WIN Accelerator.

Certified Media Management training​

Regional and global experts drawn from the WIN and WAN-IFRA extended community deliver training on: newsroom management, financial management, operationalising digital strategy and the business of news. Delivered in person and via e-learning platforms.

Gender Balance in Content training

Get exposed to tools and tactics to help you and your organisation achieve more balanced and representative content.

Managing Sexual Harassment training

Tools and procedures to protect yourself and members of your team from sexual harassment in the newsroom and in the field.

Leadership Hubs

National or regional in-person and virtual gatherings that will help to develop personal and career management strategies and build professional networks.

ELIGIBILITY: 

• Applications are open for mid to senior level editors and journalists from Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• The WIN Leadership Accelerator is targeted at mid to senior level editors and journalists. Participants must have two to three years of experience managing people or processes and be working in the media sector – print or digital newspapers, radio and, in some cases, broadcast.

Course description:

This course provides an introduction to media management, and is intended for those who have limited experience in management; however, it will benefit even experienced managers by reminding them of the basics. 

There are 5 modules in total:

1. Leadership and management

The purpose of this module is to enable participants to gain insight into the role of leadership within a work context, and thus providing them with the skills and knowledge to add value to one’s job. The expected outcomes include; explaining the concept of leadership, differentiating between leadership and management, analysing and comparing leadership theories, applying the different roles and qualities of leadership in a work context. 

2. Change management

This module explores strategies in keeping abreast of trends without compromising your business focus. The expected outcome from this module include; analysing own unit in terms of opportunities for innovation, demonstrating understanding of the techniques that promote creativity, developing a plan for creating an environment conducive to innovation, leading a team through a creative thinking process.

3. Finance for non-financial managers

Provides essential tools for the ability to assess the company’s financial practices. The expected outcomes include; A general understanding of methods and techniques for interpreting financial information, basic understanding of accounting and financial practices within the organisation, a basic understanding of methods and techniques for reading financial data from reports, the financial objectives of a business, the roles and responsibilities in financial planning.

4. Marketing and Advertising

Marketing and advertising form an integral component of any business, find out why and how to use this to your advantage. The expected outcomes include; monitoring the marketing environment and determining variables for marketing activities, distinguishing the role of marketing research and marketing information systems in investigating and understanding the operations of the marketplace, distinguishing characteristics of major markets, identifying influences on consumer behaviour in relation to marketing activities. 

5. Human resources including newsroom processes.

This module covers imperative skills for second level managers such as heads of department, section heads or divisional heads, and may have more than one team reporting to them. The expected outcomes include; demonstrating knowledge of the principles and processes of team building in workplace activities, getting agreement from team members on objectives, timeframes, rules and guidelines for participation, leading the team to complete workplace activities.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Women in News Leadership Accelerator Programme 2022