New online tool streamlines IMechE mentor training

The Institution is rolling out a new Online Mentor Training tool, hoping to make it more convenient for experienced engineers to become mentors and help their developing colleagues achieve professional registration.

The Institution’s accredited Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS) is a structured company career development programme, in which experienced, in-company mentors take under their wings newly postgraduate engineers and guide them through the – typically – four-year journey towards professional registration. 

Mentors, frequently motivated by the desire to give back to their company and to engineering as a profession, have to undergo initial training and complete a refresher course every three years. In the past, this training would require aspiring mentors to often travel to a training venue for a half-day face-to-face session. But this requirement might not always fit into the busy schedules of senior professional engineers. The Institution’s new interactive online training now offers the possibility of meeting the training requirements conveniently from any place with a connection to the internet. 

“The new training platform is interactive and breaks down the training into smaller modules,” said Hal Himsworth, an IMechE Fellow and Chartered Engineer, who currently works at the subsea engineering, construction and services company Subsea 7, and has over the past fifteen years mentored graduates at a number of companies. “You don’t need to do all of it in one go. It allows you to go back over the areas that interest you or you need to review.”

For Hal, who frequently travels all over the world, the opportunity to schedule the training around his professional and personal commitments is a major advantage. The Institution has been offering complementary online training previously, but the new platform, according to Himsworth, presents a major improvement. 

“It consists of six modules that are a combination of spoken texts and visual materials,” said Hal, who is also a member of the Professional Development Standards Committee, which grants MPDS accreditation to companies. “At the end of each module, you have to answer a number of questions, whereas the previous online platform would allow you to just click through it quickly.”

It takes 50 minutes to complete the entire training suite, including two case studies, which help the mentor assess whether the developing engineer is ready to step in front of the professional review interview panel. 

The new MPDS training will be accessible through the Institution’s Career Developer platform. The new online tool sits alongside the traditional full day paid face-to-face sessions, which will continue to be available for larger groups of mentors who prefer live interaction and discussion. 

“Group training is good because you get to share experiences, but the new online training is a good replacement if you are not able to go to an organised session,” said Hal. “It saves the time because you don’t need to travel anywhere, you can schedule it around your life. You can also do it as you go through the process with your mentee.”

Steve Bowle, who has been an IMechE Chartered Engineer for nearly 30 years and an MPDS mentor since 2005, agrees that the new online training offers a solid and convenient alternative especially for the refresher training, which mentors need to undertake every three years. 

“I learned a few things on it. It’s quite thorough in some of the areas,” said Steve, who currently mentors developing engineers at Essar Oil. “It’s certainly a step forward for the refresher training. I feel that for that it’s perfectly good and you don’t need to travel anywhere.”

If you are an MPDS mentor you can access the new online training via the link in the MPDS career developer tool.