Mentoring for Student Services Managers
"To support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may
maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the
person they want to be." (E. Parsloe, Coaching, Mentoring and Assessing: A Practical
Guide to Developing Competence (London, 1995))
Introduction
Mentoring is well established as an effective way of supporting personal and
professional development. As the definition provided above describes, it is focused on
enabling an individual (the mentee) to manage their professional and personal
development, and it does this through providing access to the knowledge and expertise
of a more experienced colleague (the mentor) .
To be effective, mentoring requires both parties to exercise mutual respect, and to
honour the confidential nature of the relationship. The duration for a mentoring
relationship to be effective will vary, but established guidance recommends that to be
effective it needs sufficient time to enable the development of the relationship. In
addition, it is good practice for the mentor and mentee to agree the scope, learning
objectives and likely time frame at the outset.
The Student Services Management Development Programme exists to promote
development of all our team managers, with the aim of developing a shared culture and
practices in a diverse Department. Mentoring is one of the development opportunities
provided as part of this programme, with the purpose of providing individuals with the
opportunity to explore a specific aspect of their personal and professional development
with an experienced colleague. The following definition was agreed to frame
implementation of mentoring in our context:
“A confidential relationship based on mutual respect which empowers people to
manage their own learning and development for the enhancement of their
professional practice.”
Practical Arrangements for the Mentoring Scheme
1.
The scheme recruits and trains a pool of mentors and is advertised to potential
mentees once per year in April/May with training undertaken in June. Each
mentoring partnership should last for approximately 6 months taking place between
September to May. This 8 month period is to allow for peak periods of work for
both mentees and mentors.
2.
The usual duration is up to a maximum of 6 months, i.e. to allow sufficient time to
establish the relationship and to agree and make progress against the agreed
objectives. However, the exact duration is at the discretion of the mentor and
mentee.
3.
Mentors are recruited from colleagues who are members of the SSD Leadership
Forum (Section Heads and their direct reports). Mentor training is provided for
those who volunteer and each potential mentor is asked to complete a mentor
application form to assist with matching.
4. All SSD Managers are invited to participate in the Mentoring Scheme. They will be
asked to complete a mentee application form which will then be matched up with an
appropriate mentor through the scheme.
5. Once details of mentor and mentee are confirmed, the mentee needs to organise an
initial meeting with the mentor (without any commitment), at which they can
explore the learning objectives of the mentee, what the mentor could offer and how
they will work together.
6.
The mentee needs to feel that the mentoring relationship will be of real assistance
to their development. The mentor needs to believe that they have the resources to
help. Finally, the personal chemistry needs to be right between mentor/mentee.
These are matters of judgement for both parties.
7.
If both parties agree that a useful mentoring relationship can be established, they
will set up a ‘mentoring agreement’ in which the basic parameters of the
relationship should be clearly listed. (A proforma is available on the mentoring
website to assist with this).
8.
There is not any official ‘pairing criteria’, except that the mentor should not be the
mentee’s line manager.
9.
Sarah Leavesley should be informed when a mentoring relationship has been
established and when it concludes, so that we have an idea of the overall level of
activity and the workload of each mentor. Otherwise, no other information will be
held centrally.
10. The personal content of all mentoring sessions will be entirely confidential.
11. It would however, be useful to know the extent to which similar themes occur across
the Department and to get some sense of the collective learning arising from the
scheme. This shared learning, and the impact on mentees skills and capacity for
identifying and addressing their professional and professional development need,
will underpin approaches to evaluation of the scheme.
12. It is expected that all mentees and mentors will complete evaluation questionnaires
at the end of the relationship and then again after a period of 3 months. We need
your help and guidance to provide your feedback and ideas on how the mentoring
scheme is delivered and developed.
13. Sarah Leavesley, Alex Walker and Louise Woodcock are responsible for the
coordination of the Mentoring Scheme. Ongoing strategic direction and review of
learning and progress will be provided by the Management Development Steering
Group, reporting to the Student Services Leadership Team.
Sarah Leavesley. Alex Walker and Louise Woodcock
May 2016