Graduate Mentoring and Professional Registration Programmes

The primary role of a Graduate Mentoring Programme is to provide support and guidance for a less experienced person in their career development and career prospects. Within programmes mentoring relationships are established that are usually non-reporting in nature and are additional to other forms of assistance, not a replacement.

Graduate mentoring programmes are separate from induction processes, and research suggests that they are most effective as a follow-on from induction.

3 Drivers for Graduate Mentoring Programmes

Achieving professional registration status

A common use of Graduate Mentoring Programmes within organisations is supporting and growing the competencies required of a young professional for professional registration.. Preparing graduates for registration involves both on the job training and mentoring. These roles can be combined in the same person or separated depending on the structure of the organization

Supporting competence in first years in the profession

Mentoring is an effective process for supporting the transition from academic study into the ‘real world' whilst embedding the standards of a profession in a graduate's early years of practice. A Graduate Mentoring Programme can increase competency levels across a profession by transferring professional knowledge, building networks of personal connections and sharpening the graduate's learning edge. Mentoring provides a graduate with experience, balance, perspectives and wisdom in addition to developing career opportunities.

Attracting and retaining graduates

Professional companies and businesses go to a lot of trouble to target and hire top graduates and then invest a lot of time in their development. Performance and loyalty of graduates can be enhanced by providing them with a potential career map, clarifying the pathways available and feedback on their progress along the path. A Graduate Mentoring Programme creates a significant advantage for both the graduate and the organization as a retention strategy.

Graduates are becoming more sophisticated and expecting quality mentoring support, which means attention to establishing and implementing high claiber Graduate Mentoring Programmes is a priority for competent professional practice and company competitive advantage.

Services

The New Zealand Mentoring Centre can assist with design and implementation of graduate mentoring programmes, providing a full range of consulting and training services:

• Training for Mentors - the best mentors are those who have been trained
• Training for Graduates - to accelerate learning from their mentoring relationship, go beyond technical competence into full professionalism and stem slavishly following role models
• Consultancy on effective programme design
• Review and enhancement of existing programmes