Mentor Training
The Mentor Award (Training & Development National Standards

This course can lead to a nationally recognised qualification
Brief History
The concept of mentoring has a long history, one that comes to us from Greek mythology. In Homer’s Odyssey, Mentor was the teacher of Thelemachus, the son of Odysseus. But Mentor was more than a teacher, Mentor was the union of both goal and path, wisdom personified.

Value of Mentoring
Many people have been helped through difficult transitions in their lives by the support of someone, usually a more experienced person, who offered a listening ear and the ability to put things into perspective and perhaps some useful advice of the way problems could be approached. Such neutral support - which helps someone to cope with a transition - makes for much greater personal effectiveness in the person so helped. In the case of learning, the support of a mentor can make a person learn more effectively, can deepen understanding and put a context on what is being learnt.

Mentoring is about:

• Guiding
• Listening
• Advising
• Supporting
• Developing

• Understanding
• Encouraging
• Challenging
• Enjoying

This two day course will cover:

Orientation and Reception

• Overview of the Mentor Programme
• Purposes and benefits of the Mentor Programme

Getting To Know One Another

• The importance of Mentor-Recipient pairs sharing interests, values and professional goals
• Multiple roles of mentors; self concepts of mentors

Developing Common Expectations In Mentor Relationships

• Communicating and clarifying expectations
• Developing consensus or dealing with major differences in expectations of Mentors and Recipients

Ways of Mentoring

• Sharing expertise
• Communicating support and challenge

Redefining the relationship

• The evolutionary nature of the mentoring relationships
• Avoiding the risks of mentoring
• Enjoying the benefits of a mentoring relationship

The Qualification

• The standards
• Portfolio building
• Assessment

If candidates wish to obtain the Mentor Award they will be expected to compile a short portfolio based on work practice.

The Mentor award stands in its own right but it also gives you the following:

• Credits to Training & Development NVQs
• Level 3 one unit
• Level 4 two units