Mentoring

1
Mentoring

• Developing a mentoring program
• Jim Elliott
• Student Retention Manager

2
Outline

• Brief introduction to mentoring in general
• What does Curtin want mentors to do?
• Good practice in mentoring programs
• Planning to introduce a mentoring program

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Mentor was a person

• The term Mentor derives from Homers Odyssey
  in ancient Greece. Odysseus appointed Mentor to
  act as a guardian, role model and friend for his
  son Telemachus.
• However, we now call the recipients of the
  process Mentees rather than Telemachuses

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Key information portal

• The National Mentoring Association of Australia
  is a useful resource for
• Research on mentoring
• Links to examples of good practice
• Clear benchmarks for Mentoring programs
• Etc.
• Details at http//www.dsf.org.au/mentor/index.htm

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Mentoring defined

• To help and support people to manage their own
  learning in order to maximise their potential,
  develop their skills, improve their performance
  and become the person they want to
  be. Parsloe 1992
• Mentoring includes coaching, counselling and
  networking. It is not necessary to dazzle the
  protégé with knowledge and experience. The
  mentor just has to provide encouragement by
  sharing his enthusiasm for his job.
• Clutterbuck 1991

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Mentoring straddles the area between being a
coach and a guide
Directive
Stretching Challenging
Nurturing Supporting
Mentoring
Non-Directive
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Mentors at a university

• Mentor schemes are mostly more widely used in
  Australian Universities than is the case at
  Curtin
• Mentors are usually senior students but some
  places assign staff members to act as mentors
• Mentor and mentee should have something in
  common
• Same course
• Similar background (e.g. mature-aged,
  International, rural)
• Area of interest (e.g. PC Champs)
• Location (e.g. CRE campus, student residences)

8
Who Benefits?
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Possible Roles of the Mentor

• Role of the Mentor is to
• Listen and question
• guide on career development
• pass on info knowledge
• offer different perspectives
• offer support, encouragement
• take lead (initially)
• Give well-informed advice
• Refer on where appropriate
• confront difficult issues
• celebrate success

• And to encourage mentee to
• listen
• check their understanding
• share their thoughts
• review reflect on learning
• be open to new perspectives
• take responsibility for own development
• get the most from the relationship
• celebrate success

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Mentoring Process
Stage 1 Help Mentee construct a Transition and
Development Plan for new role
Stage 2 Encourage the self-management of learning
Stage 4 Assist in evaluation of success
Stage 3 Provide support during the transition
process
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Not everyone should be a mentor

• Mentor Qualities
• Integrity
• Honesty
• Reliability
• Non-judgmental attitude
• Objectivity
• Seeing potential

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Being a Mentor isnt all beer and skittles

• Possible concerns
• Own preferences and/or bias getting in the way
• Giving too much prescriptive advice my way is
  best
• Thinking you can do it all being rescuer
• Allowing dependency to develop
• Not attending to mentors own needs
• Over-stepping role boundaries

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What do we (i.e. Curtin) want from a mentoring
program?

• Fundamental goals are
• to enable student success
• improved student experience
• better student persistence rates
• to link new students to sources of support in a
  timely way
• And finally - a mentor aims to make himself or
  herself redundant

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Getting started

• Someone in the school has to take responsibility
  for the program it cannot function without at
  least one academic staff member involved.
• You need support. However, the whole school does
  not have to be convinced of the benefits, but
  active sabotage and opposition are obviously not
  helpful.
• If there is no support at all, dont try it.

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Wont it mean more work?

• Some experience from year coordinators indicates
  that a mentor program changes rather than adds to
  your workload. i.e. the mentors ending up doing
  some of the things you might have done and you
  coordinate the mentors
• Much of the work is front loaded in overseeing
  the first cohort of mentors
• Most of the benefit will occur in an established
  scheme

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Establishing and Maintaining a Mentoring Program

• Recruit mentors from senior students in the study
  period prior to them beginning the Mentoring
  role.
• For next years Mentoring Program, this means
  seeking interested mentors soon perhaps even in
  September this year
• For a continuing program, use a mixture of
  experienced and new mentors

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Mentor Training is crucial

• Provide mentors with a brief (usually half day
  minimum) training/preparatory program including
• Generic mentoring skills/knowledge
• Course specific skills/knowledge
• Provision of a Mentors Handbook for reference
  purposes
• The Retention staff can assist with this
• It is probably best to schedule the training in
  October before students disappear. Alternative
  time is immediately prior to O Week.
• Benefits may accrue from a shared training
  session with other schools mentoring programs

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For school-based mentor programs

• Provide back-up and support to the mentors
• At least one academic staff member to act as
  mentor adviser/coordinator within the school
• Student Retention staff are available both to
  staff within the school and mentors in an
  advisory and facilitating role

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Orientation is a critical point

• Involve mentors actively in Orientation Week
  planning and delivery
• Mentors should have significant face-to-face
  contact with mentees during Orientation
• Give consideration to something that helps make
  them easily identifiable t-shirt, badge or
  similar

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Clarifying mentee expectations

• New students need to be clear what the mentor can
  and cannot do
• This can be done
• As part of the O Week program (a PowerPoint
  template is available from the Retention team for
  this) and
• With mentor program information available on an
  appropriate web page.

21
Assign Mentees to Mentors opt in or opt out?

• Some mentor programs allow new students to opt in
  by having some sort of sign up process. The
  drawback
• Some students who could really benefit from a
  mentor do not sign up
• In most cases, it works better to
• Assign all new students to a mentor
• Include information that not everyone will wish
  to have a mentor
• Allow new students to opt out if they choose to
  do so

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Timely follow-up

• Face-to-face contact between mentors and mentees
  is a high priority (unless the program is
  specifically for distance education)
• Program some face-to-face contact in the early
  weeks after the Orientation period between
  mentors and mentees
• This may be in groups or one-to-one

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Then what?

• The mentor/mentee relationship can take different
  paths
• It can be allowed to develop organically.OR
• A specific program could be devised for the
  mentors to carry out with their mentees...OR
• A recommended program that mentors can implement
  as needed
• Retention staff can help with a recommended
  program outline for mentors

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Mentor support

• It is really helpful for the mentors to meet as a
  group on a regular basis during the semester
• Actually it is more than helpful. For formally
  structured programs, it is essential
• The coordinating staff member should participate
  at least occasionally
• Retention staff can be available to assist

25
Reward your mentors

• There are a variety of reward options
• Payment (if your area has sufficient funds)
• Recognition on University transcript as a
  volunteer community activity
• Academic credit (if the mentor scheme is included
  as an activity in a senior unit)
• Certificate of participation
• Thank you ceremony
• Access to additional resources within the school
• Occasional free food

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Closure

• A good mentor program has clear closure for the
  participants
• A point where the mentor/mentee relationship
  comes to an end
• A point where the mentors relationship with the
  program coordinator comes to an end

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Support for Mentor Programs You are not on your
own

• The Student Transition and Retention Team can
• Help develop your program
• Assist with and/or deliver mentor training
• Provide templates for mentor handbooks
• Provide templates for mentor programs
• Participate in an on-going program
• Facilitate communication between areas running
  mentor programs