Pilot Mentoring SCheme 2012

Currently all new academic appointees within the Faculty are offered a mentor (through the TLHEP programme).  This new scheme extends the current mentoring arrangements to offer all academic staff, and Post-doctoral research assistants within the Faculty, the opportunity to have a mentor, including existing staff.  It will provide individuals with the opportunity to meet with a mentor to discuss a variety of issues such as:

  • Career development
  • Working methods
  • Research and teaching collaborations and networking

Having a mentor from outside of the mentee’s discipline area provides a fresh perspective.  Mentors will be drawn from a pool of senior, experienced academic staff from within and outside of the Faculty, and mentees will be paired with an appropriate mentor.

In line with the University’s membership of the Athena SWAN Charter and in line with principles of equality and diversity, we are keen to ensure that all staff are provided with the opportunity to have access to career advice and guidance and development opportunities.

Any staff interested in the scheme should firstly register their interest with the Faculty Business Manager, Mrs Ximena Canter.

Guidance for mentors and mentees will be provided and training sessions will be arranged for mentors.  Mentees will be asked to write a short paragraph mid-way through the round of mentoring sessions and, at the end of the sessions, outlining their experience of the scheme including any benefits provided.  These will be anonymised but will enable us to use the feedback for reporting purposes for such equality award schemes such as Athena SWAN.

Depending on the levels of interest and resources permitting, this trial scheme may be extended in the future to cover support staff including technical and administrative staff.

Guidance

  • It is advised that mentors and mentees discuss initially ‘ground rules’ including number of times they expect to meet, expectations for what the sessions will deliver, location of meetings, confidentiality etc.
  • The mentor should not be the mentee’s line manager
  • The mentor should ideally come from outside of the mentee’s discipline area
  • As a rough guide we would expect mentors to meet with mentees around 6 times, as a suggestion at 6 week intervals.  Although this is a trial period, staff are encouraged to extend this if both the mentor and mentee are content to do so.
  • If a mentor wishes to discuss something with the mentee’s line manager in relation to the mentee then he/she must discuss this with the mentee in advance and must only be done with their permission.
  • If a query is beyond the mentor’s area of expertise then he/she must feel able to communicate this.