The purpose of the learning and skills mentor occupation is to support individuals and groups with their learning and development towards agreed goals. They will do this by working within ethical and legal frameworks to ensure a high standard of mentoring practice. They will work collaboratively with stakeholders to inclusively meet the individual needs of the mentee. They will be committed to their own professional development and reflective practice as a mentor and within their sector.
They will typically work in an environment in their organisation where they are the knowledgeable other. They will work in a variety of locations and environments where mentoring activity may be undertaken face to face or remotely.
In their daily work, an employee in this occupation may interact with other professionals at any level of seniority in the organisation and the sector, such as: supervisors, managers, trainees, other experienced practitioners and where necessary, internal/external professionals to support meeting the individual mentee needs.
This occupation is found in the public, private and voluntary sectors in national and multinational organisations. The role of the learning and skills mentor can be found in all sectors where training and development is required. For example, but not limited to, healthcare, military, manufacturing, production, business and professional, education, leisure, construction, creative, technology.
- Taught Blended Workshops
- Named Assessor
- Assessment of practice
- Portfolio of evidence produced
- Dedicated resources
- Plan, conduct and record mentoring activities to support the progression of the mentee working within legal and ethical frameworks, including confidentiality and safeguarding.
- Use strategies to establish and maintain expectations and boundaries of mentoring contract, including recognising starting points of mentee, agreed development needs, potential barriers to development and where relevant, other stakeholders needs.
- Select and use mentoring models, tools and techniques to support mentee to make desired changes, demonstrating responsiveness to the individual mentee needs.
- Demonstrate awareness of own values, beliefs and behaviours and their effect on the mentor/mentee relationship.
- Provide support to the mentee providing information, advice and guidance, working within own professional boundaries and recognising requirements for referral to other professional services where required.
- Establish rigorous evaluation processes with mentee to support reflection on effectiveness of mentoring relationship.
- Evaluate and reflect on effectiveness of own practice for the purpose of self-development.
- Make sustainably informed decisions in approaches used to plan, conduct, record and evaluate mentoring practice.
- Maintain records of mentoring practice and recording of continual professional development activities
This qualification allows candidates to progress into employment or to the following apprenticeship standards:
- Level 5 Learning and Skills Teacher.
