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• What is mentoring?
• • The content and remit of mentoring schemes
  • Structure and format of mentoring
  • Distinction between mentoring and management

What is mentoring?

In this section you will find out more about different types of mentoring schemes, what schemes should contain and how mentoring differs from other kinds of professional development

The most common mentoring relationships are between a more experienced person (the mentor) and a less experienced person (the mentee). However, mentoring can also be a developmental relationship between peers.

Mentoring at Sussex focusses on professional development, while acknowledging that aspects of a mentee’s personal life may also need to be addressed, e.g. work/life balance.

What mentors do

• support mentees to discover development needs and set their own objectives for professional growth
• allow mentees to raise issues, while occasionally clarifying and challenging
• encourage mentees to reflect on their beliefs, feelings, thoughts and behaviours, and to view issues from multiple perspectives
• help mentees to adopt a self-reliant approach to problem solving
• enable mentees to become effective decision-makers

Successful mentoring can improve mentee self-motivation, problem solving ability and their approach to developing new knowledge and skills.

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