Institution news
Many definitions of mentoring exist. In an IMechE context, it is the “Wise counselling of a Developing Engineer in a protected relationship, which focuses on a Developing Engineer’s personal development, from dependence and inexperience to maturity and independent professionalism.”
To be successful at mentoring, many skills are required. In addition to being a good role model, mentors also need to be capable of delivering feedback in a balanced, fair and supportive way. They need to have good active listening skills, emotional intelligence and be adept at building rapport, particularly when mentoring developing engineers remotely. Mentors also need to have a good solid understanding of the new UK SPEC 4 requirements and the scoring system used by Assessors at Professional Review Interviews. In addition to being a wise and trusted advisor, an IMechE mentor must also assess the work that their mentee is doing.
To provide support to the IMechE mentoring community, Sandra Mulligan, Business Development Manager for Scotland, set up an online Mentor Forum in 2021 and it has proved to be a popular initiative with mentors from a wide variety of different industry sectors throughout the UK sharing their insights and experiences with the attendees.
The Forum takes place monthly for an hour over a lunchtime on MS Teams. Slides are circulated after each session providing attendees with an additional resource to add to their ‘mentoring toolkit’. A summary of topics that have been covered to date include:
- John Calcraft from Caterpillar gave a live demo of sli.do allowing attendees to score a piece of evidence and compare results
- Professional Review Interview (PRI) – What assessors will be looking for in the application form and pitfalls to avoid
- The Career Learning Assessment (CLA) process
- PRI – The good, The bad and….The Ugly
- ‘Ask the Expert’ with a panel from Caterpillar, JLR, Clyde Space and IMechE
- Preparing for a virtual mpds accreditation visit including MacTaggart Scott’s experience
- UK SPEC 4 and impact on PRI with thoughts from an IMechE PRI Assessor
- How to help DE’s stay motivated and on track with recording their IPD with thoughts from the Scheme Administrator at Leonardo
The 2022 Mentor Forum series got off to a great start on Jan 11 when Simeon Tulip, Principal Engineer – Metallurgy, BAE Systems Submarines, Barrow shared his thoughts on mentoring with the 72 participants. Overall, support for the Mentor Forum and feedback from attendees has been excellent. Some recent endorsements include:
“After mentoring for a while, mainly on my own, I find the mentor forum sessions really useful to help bring ideas and knowledge together. Looking back, it has been invaluable to my own path and helped me improve as a mentor and leader.’’
Russell Breden CEng MIMechE, Principal Engineer, Valve Section, SMC European Technical Centre
‘‘I welcomed the discovery of the IMechE Mentor Forum during lockdown. I was at a point in my mentor career when I realised I wasn’t sure where to get more training and a place to meet other mentors around the IMechE - as my workplace didn’t have much information. The online sessions have been well structured but also, key for me, a safe space in which to ask questions and get friendly non-judgemental expert and peer guidance. Run over Teams, I’ve been able to attend sessions when I’m able. Sandra is very approachable and has been kind enough to answer my questions in between the mentor forum sessions too. Here’s to more of these, we have a good core of mentors that attend regularly and we can build our relationships. I’m looking forward to more great discussions in 2022’’
Azu Hatch CEng MIMechE, Senior Engineer, WSP
“Attending the mentor forum helps to keep me up to date with the latest developments. In addition, it’s also a good opportunity to understand how mentors from other organisations find the process and share best practice to improve my mentoring skills”
Alasdair McKinley, CEng MIMechE, Head of Profession for Mechanical Engineering, Jacobs
Planning for 2022 is well underway and Sandra has arranged the following:
9 Feb 12.30pm to 1.30pm CPD & What DE’s need form the Mentoring Relationship
10 March D&I in Action, ScotRail’s story
7 April Upgrade to Fellow and a recent case history
If you’d like to join the Mentor Forum, of if you have ideas for topics for future events, please drop a note to Sandra Mulligan E: sandra.mulligan@imeche.org