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Mentoring
Whatever stage you are at in your career, you may be interested in mentoring.
You may feel that you would like the support of a mentor or you may be interested
in using your skills and experience to support another woman by becoming a mentor yourself.
There are numerous definitions and descriptions of mentoring, but here is one
of the best known: Eric Parsloe, from the Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring,
describes the purpose of mentoring as:
‘To support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they
may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance
and become the person they want to be.’
A mentor can be a valuable source of help and advice at particular times, especially:
- when considering future career options
- when preparing an application for a new job or promotion
- when settling into a new work environment
- when coping with difficult situations such as dealing with conflict or returning from a career break
Many women working or studying in SET find themselves in male dominated environments
and can feel isolated. Discussing coping strategies with a female mentor who has
had a similar experience, can be very helpful. Male mentors can also be highly
supportive.
Mentoring relationships come in many different formats. For example, they can
be short term or long term, formal or informal, one on one or group activities,
face to face or via the internet.
The UKRC has a wealth of experience in mentoring. Since our launch in 2004, we
have helped around 500 individuals and over 20 organisations to establish new
mentoring schemes or access existing ones. Read about our mentoring projects here.
We fund MentorSET, which is a one-on-one mentoring programme run by the Women’s Engineering Society
for individual women at all career stages, from those who are recently graduated
to those at board level. It also offers a support forum for Black and ethnic minority
women in SET or returning to SET called Peer2Peer. MentorSET offers full training
and support to all volunteer mentees and mentors and covers the whole of the UK.
We provide peer mentoring circles for women who have taken a career break, who would like some mentoring support
to help them return to work.
We offer expert advice and practical support to organisations on how to set up or improve a mentoring scheme – including help with marketing,
recruitment, training, monitoring and evaluation. This service either comes free,
or at extremely competitive prices.
There are many organisations that offer advice and information on mentoring.
Please visit our mentoring resources and links page.
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