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Professional development mentor

Guides and encourages a candidate's professional development, including the acquisition of competences for professional registration, where appropriate.

Primary focus:

A mentor can be defined as a ‘wise and trusted professional friend’. A person with such characteristics has the ability to become a successful mentor. Building upon these foundations, the IET expects a mentor to be a suitably experienced person who acts as a confidential colleague and a guide who encourages professional development.

It is intended that the relationship between mentor and mentee is independent of the chain of command within a company. Mentors should therefore avoid supervising those in a direct reporting line and should be careful not to ‘step on the toes’ of other line managers. It is important that the mentor and mentee set an agreed period for the relationship at an early stage. This should ensure that the mentor does not enter into an open-ended commitment. The IET’s mentoring service operates on a ‘by members for members’ basis.

Main duties and responsibilities:

  • Volunteering time to take a personal interest in others;
  • Active listening;
  • Questioning and finding out what is important to others, by exploring their skills, aptitudes and aspirations;
  • Challenging assumptions and acting as a soundboard;
  • Recognising when the mentee should be identifying a need for other sources of help (such as from the IET’s professional registration advisory services);
  • Guiding candidate in identifying opportunities and making choices that enable acquisition of competencies required for registration, where this is the desired goal;
  • Adhere to the IET's data protection policy for volunteers.

Appointment method:

  • The appointment of mentors involves the completion of an application form which is available from the IET website. Our staff will then activate the appointment.

Period of appointment:

  • The period of appointment is usually at the discretion of the staff member running the mentoring service.

Training:

  • Online training is available to all mentors volunteering through the mentoring service, once appointed;
  • The IET offers mentoring workshops (lasting approximately two hours) to all its registered mentors. These tend to be evening workshops held locally within the local network, dependent on demand and are free of charge. Our website provides details of forthcoming mentoring workshops;
  • The IET also runs a more detailed one day mentoring course for which there is a fee, although mentors volunteering through the mentoring service are eligible for a 50% discount on the advertised price. Our website provides details of forthcoming dates, venues and prices for the mentors training course.

Person specification:

  • A mentor volunteering through the mentoring service will be a member of the IET and will ideally be professionally qualified.

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