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]
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
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http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/learn
