PRESENTATION OF THE FEMSKILL PROJECT

FEMSKILL METHODOLOGY - GUIDELINES FOR PROJECT ORGANISATIONS

Formal mentoring

From a methodological point of view, partner organisations of the FEMskill project are in a formal mentorship. The differences between the formal and the informal mentoring are summarised on the basis of the WIN methodology, in the following table.

Issue Formal mentoring

Process management

Coordinator manages the initial, the procedural and the evaluation phase of the programme. Partner coupling Facilitated process in which the responsibility of choice lies with the Mentee

Goals of the relation To achieve predetermined and clear goals.

Selection of the mentor Mentors will be selected on the basis of their capacities of contributing the the achievement of the goals set by the Mentee. Informal mentoring

Mentoring is initiated and maintained exclusively by those involved in the process.

Partners are coupled by pure dumb luck, in general, a mentor choses a Mentee.

Goals of the relation my be specified Non-existing or included by the mentor. The main criterion for the acceptance of the mentor is sympathy and respect.

Relation

Agreements

Activities

Evaluation Both partners identify the relation as mentoring relation. A mentoring agreement sets the early milestone of the relation. The relation is not called or perceived as “mentoring”. No mentoring agreement.

The relation is a set of regular meetings, communication tools, structures, within a defined framework, chronology etc. The relation becomes more intensive in an irregular manner and in line with the needs and the conditions.

The relation is regularly evaluated. The relation is rarely evaluated, if at all.

Time span The relation is limited in time. The relation can last several years.

Table: Formal and informal mentoring

Hereafter, we will present the main points the organisation has to pay attention to during the mentoring process.

In case of a formal mentoring, the mentoring organisation has the following tasks to perform (in areas, on the basis of the WIN methodology)

 Planning and timing  Implementation of the activities  Monitoring and fine-tuning  Evaluation

Action to be taken by the project organisation

Planning and timing

The mentoring process lasts one year in the FEMskill project. It is of utmost importance, that all activities are planned and accordingly managed from the first steps and the very beginning. This means that before the recruitment of the participants, all roles and activities together with their timing need to be defined.

In the different project phases, the following points require special attention:  Identification and definition of the target group and recruitment;  Setting up the team of Mentors (as required by the target group);  Sharing the project goals, targets and methodology with the Mentors;  Developing the training programme and the recruitment of trainers;  Building the project team (trainers, mentors, project managers.

The project managers together with the project members will jointly decide on the following:  The implementation of the mentoring process and the training considering the number of modules and their duration  The activities to be implemented during the time between two training modules;  Timing and follow u of mentoring sessions;  Timing and type of monitoring (activities and tools);  Project evaluation criteria.