Institution news
“Attending the mentor forum helps my network of 60 mentors and I to continually develop through the various relevant topics that the forum offers. It is an independent source of credible information from the Institution that provides a continuous aide memoire a little and often, displays precedence and relevant good mentoring practice for practicing mentors and those wishing to take up or resurrect mentoring.
Furthermore, the monthly feed from the forum is a professional avenue that enables individual and organisational honing of the mentoring process by various industries coupled with the added benefit of sharing best practice.”
Stephen Nesbeth, CEng FIMechE FIET MAPM MCMI, Head of Profession for Mechanical Engineering, AWE.
“The regular mentor forums are a big help to improve your knowledge and maintain focus on your mentoring through being directly engaged with IMechE. Direct participation with IMechE is great for member motivation and encouraging two-way interaction with your peers across industry.”
Gordon Tait, CEng FIMechE, Innovation Manager, DSRL
“The mentor forum provides an opportunity for me to hear from other mentors and experienced engineers from various industries. I have found it benefits both my mentoring and my engineering leadership. The forums are both informative and interactive and I always enjoy the discussions which take place.”
Dominic Trueman, Principal Track Systems Engineer, Rail Safety & Standards Board
A wide variety of topics have been covered during the past year including, ‘How to be a great Mentor’ with thoughts from Simeon Tulip, Principal Engineer – Metallurgy, BAE Systems Submarines, Barrow. With an awareness of D&I being a new requirement as part of UK SPEC 4, award winner Karen Wallace, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager at ScotRail shared some great insights from ScotRail’s various D&I initiatives.
Case histories on meeting the Fellow requirements were shared by Dan Byrne, CEng FIMechE, Integrated Services Contract manager at Torus BGP and Fraser Maitland CEng FIMechE Engineering Manager at Worley.
Jennifer Gilmour, CEng FIMechE at DSRL shared some very thought-provoking perspectives on mentoring and her road to Fellowship. The ‘Lessons Learned’ from running the Transport for London’s Graduate Training Scheme with Rowan Joachim and Dominic Trueman was a great overview of a successful and long running mpd scheme.
Other topics that have been tackled include - Getting the mentoring relationship off to a great start with your new mentee, What Assessors and Sponsors need to see in an IMechE application and How to use IMechE resources to achieve your CPD goals.
Sandra Mulligan, IMechE’s Senior Business Development Manager, UK who runs the forum commented “It’s been really encouraging to see the mentor forum go from strength to strength. I’d like to thank all the great guest speakers that have contributed over the past year. I’d also like to express our gratitude to all the excellent mentors who support us in the work we do, helping engineers on their journey to professional registration and beyond. Here’s to continued success in 2023. I’m always on the lookout for speakers and topics to consider for the mentor forum. If you have ideas you’d like to discuss as topics for next year, I’d love to hear from you”.
The next mentor forum will take place on Dec 8 from 12.45 to 13.30 when we’ll be joined by Laura Aldren from Total Energies, Laura will share her experiences of how the mentoring relationship can develop beyond mpds, to the benefit of both parties.
Please email Sandra E: Sandra.Mulligan@imeche.org to get added to the circulation list for the forum, the invite to attend will be circulated on Dec 6.
For information about the support available to applicants from the Business Development Team, please visit here