Employer Mentoring of
Apprentices
Name
Date
This was produced as part of the Apprenticeship Staff Support Programme, which
was commissioned and funded by The Education and Training Foundation
Administration
Timing
Breaks
Rooms
Refreshments
Phones
Facilities
Introductions

Name

Background

Current mentoring role?

Personal objective(s)

“I am probably the only person in the
room who….”
Agenda
Apprenticeship context
 Role of the mentor
 Skills of the mentor
 Stages in the process
 Roles and responsibilities
 SMART targets

Setting the Scene
 Be yourself
 Contribute
 Offer feedback … constructively
 Be respectful
 Something should be different
tomorrow!
Apprenticeships

Provider to insert their specific
Apprenticeship context
What is the role of a mentor?
The mentor role
As a mentor, you pass on valuable skills,
knowledge and insights to your mentee to
help them develop personally and in their
career.
Definition
"Mentoring is 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."
Eric Parsloe, The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring
Skills of a mentor

What do you think are the essential skills
of a mentor?
Skills of a Mentor
Positivity
 Empathetic
 Motivational
 Confident
 Honest
 Questioning
 Active listening
 Noticing
 knowledgeable

Caring
 Observing
 Target driven
 Skilled at feedback
 Time manager
 Structured
 Authoritative
 Approachable
 Open

Stages in the mentoring process
1. Getting to
know you
4. Ending
2. Goal setting
3. Progress
monitoring
Exercise – getting to know you

Write a letter to your mentee. Include:
◦ A little about you, your background, work
history and your experience
◦ What you hope to bring to mentoring
◦ What you will commit to the mentoring
relationship
◦ Your hopes and expectations of mentoring
Effective listening

In pairs, one person talks about a hobby,
holiday or passion of theirs.

The other person has the role of
listening.
How do we ACTIVELY listen?
How do we ACTIVELY listen?

Maintain eye contact

Encourage the speaker

Check understanding / summarise

Appropriate body language
Exercise
Draw a house
Explicitness is....
...defining, and specifying in explicit terms, what
is required, so that the person has a clear
mental picture of the actions, behaviour or
results that are required.
Draw a house
Add 25 points for each window
 Add 100 points if you included curtains
 Take off 50 points for each chimney
 Add 75 points for a pathway
 Add 100 points for each tree
 Take off 25 points for animals

Explicitness
The Onion Model
SMART Targets

SMART targets help develop explicitness
in goal setting.

SMART stands for:
S
M
A
R
T
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-bound
Creating SMART targets

Work in pairs to generate 2-3 SMART
targets that may be relevant to an
Apprentice.

Share your examples with the room and
ask for feedback on ways they may be
made even more SMART
Exercise 2 - SMART targets
How could you suggest SMARTening the
following target:
Apprentice X is expected to make
telephone contact with 300 employers.
Feedback exercise

In small groups discuss how feedback is
best delivered.

Agree the key elements of effective
feedback

Prepare to feedback to the full group
What is Feedback?

Information about reactions to a product,
a person’s performance of a task, etc.
which is used as a basis for improvement.
Oxford English Dictionary
Considerations when providing
feedback









Be clear and honest
Remain positive
Be objective – using facts
Ensure the comments are constructive
Feedback should be two-way
It may need to be formally followed up
Discuss alternatives / advice
Motivational – positive / developmental /
positive
Consider an appropriate environment
Preparing to Give Feedback
When preparing to give feedback, it can be useful to consider the
conversation from three different perspectives, in order to ensure
that:

You are clear about the key messages you want / need to get
across

You have considered beforehand the possible reactions /
questions of the recipient, how your feedback can be worded
in a way that is least likely to provoke a difficult reaction, and
how you might handle possible reactions / questions

The bigger picture – the context of the conversation, what are
the longer-term implications of the conversation, and what is
the overall purpose of the feedback conversation
Feedback exercise

In groups of three allocate roles:
◦ Observer
◦ Mentor
◦ Mentee

Practice providing effective feedback to the
Apprentice based on their first month in
your department
Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle
The Seven Learning Styles
Visual
prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding
Aural
prefer using sound and music
Verbal
prefer using words, both in speech and writing
Physical
prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch
Logical
prefer using logic, reasoning and systems
Social
prefer to learn in groups or with other people
Solitary
prefer to work alone and use self-study
What could be barriers to
mentoring success?

In groups list on the left margin of a piece
of flipchart the potential barriers to a
successful mentoring relationship

Move to the flipchart of a different group
and say how you may overcome each of
the barriers
Case study
Your apprentice suddenly starts being about
20 minutes late for work every day, having
been an excellent time-keeper up to that
point.
Honestly - what would you do?
Case study
When gently persuaded, the apprentice
revealed that his moped had broken and
he couldn’t afford to fix it until pay-day,
added to the fact that his Mum (single
parent) was ill and so couldn’t drive him
in.
What would you do now?
What support is available?
Your Learning Provider
 Mentoring Handbook
 Linked-in group – ‘Apprentice Mentors’
 Websites – specific support
 Further training

Thank you!

Evaluation sheets

Next steps

Any questions?