Professional Staff Mentoring Scheme
The Professional Staff Mentoring Scheme is currently closed to new applications, pending a review of the programme. All current mentoring relationships will remain in place during the review.
An announcement will be made via this webpage and other internal communication channels when the programme is due to open for new applications to join the programme. If you have any queries in the meantime, please contact mentoring@st-andrews.ac.uk
The Professional Staff Mentoring Scheme is administered centrally by OSDS who match applicants, provide training, provide on-going support and evaluate the success of the scheme. Since the beginning, the scheme has attracted many positive comments from participants (mentors & mentees), who have developed personally and professionally through the mentoring. Great experience has been gained from taking part, and achievements have increased.
A Professional staff mentoring handbook (PDF, 1,303 KB) was produced to accompany the mentoring, as were Professional staff mentoring slides (PDF, 91 KB) which provides a briefing.
If you have any problems or queries, please contact: mentoring@st-andrews.ac.uk
The following provides more information and application details for the scheme.
Being a mentee
Mentees can be any member of professional staff who would find it useful to have a neutral mentor who can help them achieve specific objectives that they set for themselves.
Mentees should be prepared to invest (approximately) one hour per month to the scheme for a period of twelve months. Mentoring relationships are finite and should come to a natural end when the mentee's objectives have been achieved. Briefing sessions are provided for participants to offer guidance for meetings, and the role of mentor / mentee.
There are many benefits to the scheme as the focus is on the mentee, allowing them to highlight areas they feel advice and / or assistance is required. As such, participation can help improve skills within the workplace and learning from an experienced colleague may aid the management of career development, particularly with regards to any future roles. With mentoring often being conducted ‘informally’ it is also an excellent opportunity to discuss problems that may have arisen, and gain advice / support from a ‘neutral’ person.
Being a mentor
Anyone can be a mentor if they have skills to pass on, with the only requirements being to have the time and commitment to participate.
Mentors should be prepared to invest (approximately) one hour per month to the scheme. Mentoring relationships are finite and should come to a natural end when the mentee's objectives have been achieved. Briefing sessions are provided for participants to offer guidance for meetings, and the role of mentor / mentee. Support is provided should you required it.
Mentors often express the satisfaction they gain from passing on knowledge and playing a role in the development of their colleagues, as well as the positive impact this can have on their organisation:
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Mentoring gives me a real buzz and makes me feel unbelievably good that somebody can learn and develop with my help. It has enabled my influence to spread in the organisation.
(An NHS manager and mentor - taken from The Mentoring Pocketbook by Alred, Garvey and Smith).
Application process
The Professional Staff Mentoring Scheme is currently closed to new applications, pending a review of the programme. All current mentoring relationships will remain in place during the review.
An announcement will be made via this webpage and other internal communication channels when the programme is due to open for new applications to join the programme.
What is mentoring?
A ‘mentor’ is defined as “an experienced or trusted adviser”, the word ‘mentoring’ originates from Greek mythology.
‘Mentoring’ has long been used as a successful form of learning, training and development within the workplace, with the role of the ‘mentor’ being to assist and support the personal and professional development of their ‘mentee’.
Traditionally, a ‘mentor’ is a more experienced member of staff who seeks to pass their skills, expertise and knowledge of the workplace on to a (usually) less experienced member of staff, with a view of fostering their development.