“Coaching and Mentoring are learning relationships, which help people to take charge of their own development, to realease their potential and to achieve results that they value.� Connor & Pokora (2007:6)
The North West Mentoring Scheme provides a high quality, confidential service that gives mentees an opportunity to access appropriate and qualified mentors. What is mentoring? Mentoring is when an individual provides support and guidance to someone in a particular area to help them with their career or professional development. Mentoring is a practical and cost-effective solution to professional development within any organisation. Mentoring is that extra support everyone can benefit from. As well as helping the mentee develop and advance through their career, the mentor can develop extra skills and understanding from the partnership.
The Scheme is appropriate for you if: •
You are serious about managing your own development, have considered the needs that you hope to address through the mentoring relationship and have identified mentoring as appropriate through your personal development plan.
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You are willing to do some preparatory work, to commit to the mentoring network and keep the Mentoring Scheme Team informed of progress.
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You have discussed mentoring with your line manager (or equivalent and ideally have explicit support to proceed.)
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You specifically want a mentor from outside your organisation and understand that we encourage cross-professional and peer mentoring.
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You can commit the time required to develop a meaningful mentoring relationship and to take supported action to develop yourself.
Do I need any training or experience? No training is needed as all the training and tools you need to develop your mentoring skills are provided for you by the Scheme.
Who can apply? The Scheme is open to all NHS colleagues in the North West region who are employed by NHS Trusts in Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Lancashire.
How to apply: Registration to the scheme is a simple matter of completing a short online application form, which can be found at:
www.nwmentoring.nhs.uk