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Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person.
In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and professional growth of a mentee. Most traditional mentorships have senior employees mentoring more junior employees, but mentors need not be senior to those they assist. What matters is that mentors have experience that others can learn from.
In the education setting, the role of mentorship focuses on guiding students through their academic and career pathways. Mentors have proved beneficial in helping all types of students achieve their personal and professional goals and multiple studies have shown the positive impact of mentorship for the success of minority or underserved students. Mentors can be anyone from an older student, an employer, an academic advisor, a faculty member, or a colloquium advisor. Mentors can assist multiple students at once, and mentorship can either be informal or structured through the institution.
The following types of individuals often serve as mentors: academic advisors, career advisors, career coaches, and peer advisors. Mentorship can be done one-on-one, over distance (e.g. asynchronous or virtually), or to a group.
In the workplace setting, mentorship is a widely accepted talent management strategy. Some 70% of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs. Common types of mentorship include:
Mentorship can be an important support for learners and workers. In the education setting, mentors can help learners progress along their education and career pathways. In the workplace, mentors can help new workers orient more quickly to their jobs, help them navigate the workplace more efficiently and effectively, develop professional development plans, and guide career transitions.
Year Up’s mission is to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will help them reach their potential through professional careers and higher education. Year Up students are ages 18-24 who have a high school diploma or GED but are otherwise disconnected from the economic mainstream. Mentoring is an integral part of the program. Year Up matches each student to a mentor—a working professional—about two months before the students begin their corporate internships. Year Up provides orientation and support to mentors and organizes events that mentors and mentees attend together. The mentors provide additional support as students transition from Year Up to their internship. They encourage continuous learning and problem solving, assist in building and using professional networks, and review mentees’ resumés and college applications.
The Peer Mentor Program at the University of Virginia provides support to and introduces new students to resources and services to help them adjust academically and socially to the university.
The European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) is a global body working to develop, promote, define best practices in mentoring, coaching, and supervision. It maintains a range of industry-standard frameworks, rules, and processes for mentorship and related fields.
Many companies have implemented formal mentoring programs, following a variety of models:
https://mentorloop.com/blog/examples-best-company-mentoring-programs/
Wikipedia contributors. (2022, October 6). Mentorship. Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentorship
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