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Training Mentors
The running of an effective training program is more likely to result in mentors successfully embarking and completing the formal part of the mentoring journey. This will be because they have had an opportunity to reflect about their own strong areas, brush up some skills, learn some new skills and gain a greater understanding of the world of their mentees.
Some programs will use orientation as part of their training program, others will run 3 to 5 hour training programs, while others will run training programs of between 16 and 30 hours in duration spread over a period of time.
The rule of thumb tends to be that the more high risk the environment of the mentee is, the more thorough the training should be.
The nature of the mentoring role will also determine the content of the training ie, is the mentor going to simply be a friend to the mentee or will the mentor help the mentee set and achieve goals, perhaps assist with some career plans and so on? The older the mentee the more realistic it would be to see the mentor as more than just a friend. However, the establishment of the friendship is key to the success of the relationship, hence the need to cover some of these relationship building skills during the training.
An effective training program will also allow mentors to withdraw from the program, possibly because they realize they have their own issues to resolve before they befriend a young person.
Most mentor training programs will cover a combination of the following topics:
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Role of a Mentor; What is a Mentor? Qualities of an effective Mentor? The developmental approach to mentoring.
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How to set and achieve goals.
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Identifying a mentee's strengths: resiliency and its relevance to the mentoring journey.
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Communication skills: active listening; giving and receiving feedback; effect of body language, tone of voice and gestures; roadblocks to communication.
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Strategies to assist mentors to communicate effectively with the mentees, which will include consideration of important issue affecting their mentee's behaviour eg, developing a positive self-image; self-efficacy; positive and negative peer pressure; issues affecting adolescents such as wagging school, substance abuse, bullying (physical and text bullying), violence, inappropriate sexual behaviour and making a move towards more independence; the impact of technology in the lives of Generation Y and Generation Z young people.
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Resolving conflicts non-violently.
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Safety issues such as abuse prevention, sexual harassment, text bullying, transportation policies and alcohol and cigarette use.
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Important Program Guidelines such us, how often to meet; where to meet; the role of the mentee's family; acceptable and unacceptable behaviour; completing regular evaluation procedures; privacy and confidentiality; match closure and the program's matching policy.
An effective training program will bond a group of mentors in an incredibly positive way which will certainly encourage them to attend ongoing training and supervision gatherings.
The training should cater for the participants' different learning styles such as visual, auditory and kinesthetic, being most effective as an experiential experience for the potential mentors. Other training methods to consider using could include:
You should decide whether or not you can gain accreditation for your training and present all participants with a Certificate of Attendance at the end of the training if they have fulfilled all the program criteria.
Where mentees are being prepared for the mentoring relationship, any training will most likely follow the orientation process. Again, much depends on the nature of the mentoring program being run.
| Statement of Purpose and a Long Range Plan | Recruiting Volunteer Mentors | Orientation of Volunteer Mentors | Screening of Volunteer Mentors | Training Volunteer Mentors | Matching Mentors with Mentees | Monitoring Mentors and Mentees | Support, Recognition and Retention of Mentors | Closure of Mentoring Relationship | Evaluation of Mentoring Relationships | Quick Checklist of an Effective Mentoring Program | Mentor Training Program |
| Return Home | Meet Robin | Setting up a Mentoring Program | Mentor | Gen Y2Z Teacher-Mentors | Peer Mentor | GR8MATES program Blog | Blog 4 Parents and Teenagers | Robin's Great Links | Contact Robin |
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