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Mentoring schemes and approaches clearly vary according to context. Our Education Guidance Service operates what could be described as a mentoring system on two levels. (A broader university peer review scheme is being developed, but the two don't really connect.) a. An induction mentor role with new staff beginning to work in the Education Guidance team. The role supports a detailed academic and professional induction set out in the professional development handbook which we put together as part of our quality framework. The role now has primarily been taken on by the Lead Adviser, who may or may not be the line manager, but is sometimes shared with other members of the team. b. We have annual peer review based on a one-to-one discussion and interview observation. All advisers participate as peer reviewers, including relatively new staff. This is written up, agreed by both parties and fed into annual review. Again, the process is laid out in the PD Handbook This may sound a little formal for a 6 person team who already work very closely together. However, for this very reason, it has been important for us to establish clear and explicit academic and professional principles underpinning our work as a basis for the development and the introduction of new staff. We have developed a quality assurance/enhancement framework for the Service, and have found professional as well as academic frameworks to be useful in this respect. As we offer pre-entry as well as on-course academic guidance, we have been through the matrix accreditation process. Although the matrix accreditation visit itself was quite superficial, we found the framework for preparation extremely useful across the full range of our work, on-course and pre-entry. If the purpose of mentoring is staff development, I think for us here the most useful developmental activity is our monthly case study meeting where we all meet and contribute. This also gives us the basis for monitoring patterns in queries arising, interrogating particular complex academic or problems in the application of university regulations, and sharing our individual approaches. Cal Weatherald Education Adviser Sheffield Hallam University Education Guidance Service Student Services Centre Floor 5, Owen Building Sheffield Hallam University SHEFFIELD S1 1WB Tel 0114 225 3743 Fax 0114 225 2161 E mail [log in to unmask] ________________________________ From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Hilsdon Sent: 19 February 2006 15:10 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Experiences of Mentoring Dear All I would be interested to hear from those who have experience, thoughts or opinions about the role and/or value of mentoring in our general field of work. What arrangements, if any, exist to regulate / facilitate mentoring in your institution? Does mentoring feed-in to any managerial functions such as appraisal? Have you been / are you working with a mentor? Did you establish your own mentoring relationship or was it offered to you by the institution? If there is a scheme at your workplace, is it offered to all staff or just to those on academic contracts? How useful has the experience been for you? Have you been / are you a mentor? Were you given any training or preparation for the role? What has the experience of being a mentor been like for you - do you have any advice or thoughts to share about it? Does anyone have thoughts about the value of 'mentoring' type relationships when those involved are colleagues from different areas of practice or disciplines? Your replies may be useful to other list-members so, if you are prepared to share, please hit 'reply all' to post to the whole list. Best wishes John John Hilsdon Co-ordinator, Learning Development University of Plymouth Drake Circus Plymouth PL4 8AA 01752 232276 [log in to unmask] http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/learn