Compiled national reports on peer coaching and mentoring

Compiled National Reports on peer coaching and mentoring Hungary

General overview/Definition of mentors

Mentors are helpers, supporting people on the basis and idea of volunteering. Most of the time mentoring is a personal support, where a more experienced person helps the mentee. At national level some can find “business‐coach” seminars for mentors and coaches, where someone can develop his mentor skills but the spirit of mentoring as a volunteering process is the most commonly known in the country. At an organisational level, I would like to highlight that educators and trainers are many times mentors, too, getting involved in a more overall changing process of the student/ mentee. For sure, and accordingly to our organisation's policy, when educators do mentoring, they do not and should not act like trainers or teachers. The relationship between mentors and mentees is mainly based on discovering strong and new “sides” of the mentee (and parallel of the mentor, too) and letting him to act interdependently and with free willing. The best result a mentor relationship can have is a change or a step forward from the behalf of the mentee. As a real change at work can come only with gaining new skills or habits, we believe that the mentoring process will be fruitful through skill development. As for the age spectrum, traditionally in Hungary and in our organisation, younger “are mentored” by elder but this is because of the life or professional experience one can have in general. Age can not be an obstacle in any case in founding a mentor relationship.

In the field of employment, which most concerns the SoS project, mentoring is described more often as ‘employment guidance’ and the provision of information on getting a job and labour market trends but it remans more a theoretical approach than a practical. In sum, and based on our experiences and the field research made by our organisation, the concept of mentoring could/ should be enhanced in the country and especially by the state authorities.

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In which professions is the role of mentors integrated?

In Hungary the first profession to mention is the teaching profession. At a state level, the definition of “mentoring” became last year a part of the educational system. Mentoring is a part of the professional teaching career and of the educators' portfolio at state schools. However, mentoring may be used in any profession but rarely out of an educational organisation in Hungary. Except of the educational sector, mentoring examples can be seen in the health care sector mainly. As our organisation is a public body, we do not have any experience in supporting methods in the private sector and no research has been done them in such context.

Outlook for mentoring

Although officially the statistics lately show a good tendency on less unemployment, and economic development, growing long‐term unemployment is a reality, especially in the case of groups in risk, such as not skilled or low skilled workers. Mentoring – and coaching – are not widely recognised and known methods of job seeking or career building. It is still a privilege of a few in the country and the sector of supporting methods is underdeveloped, even if during our research and debates and talks in our School we could see that people of all ages are open to be a part of a mentoring process. (Due to the fact that most participants they were auto‐declared as unexperienced in the field, they participated as mentees.) We can conclude that our mentees understood a strong interdependence between skills development through mentoring and finding a job. That was a real success to hear after our mentoring a and caching sessions.

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Austria


The Mentoring System in Austria is a tool in HRD and frequently applied as such in large companies as well as in SMEs depending on the size and the level of organization. Mentors related to apprenticeship trainings in companies who offer these trainings, introduce apprentices into and guide them through their apprenticeship training, helping them to develop their professional knowledge, skills and abilities as well as basic social and generic employment skills. In Austria company‐based training of apprentices is complemented by compulsory attendance of a part‐time vocational school for apprentices [Berufsschule]. Thus, apprenticeship training is also referred to as "dual vocational training system" or as "dual system". The mentors are usually senior employees with a special qualification as “Lehrlingsausbilder” (apprentice trainer) and experienced in their field of employment. In small companies or if mentors are the immediate supervisors, in addition to their work with the apprentice, they are an important link to the vocational school regarding the learning progress and to the parents of the apprentice regarding the pastoral responsibilities if aged under 18. Mentors are also active in placement programs for unemployed persons. In these so‐called “implacement foundations” trainings consist of approximately 60% ‐70% practical work in a company and 40% ‐ 30% learning in a training institute. The role of the mentor in the company is similar to the role of the mentor in apprenticeship training. Apart from this, mentors are senior employees with good work experience who introduce new employees into their workplace (frequently trainee programs) or support employees when changing tasks within their company and guide them through a fixed period of time with a plan of action and a clear target. Mentors may also support employees whose job is at risk, but may be preserved by providing the respective employee with further training or education or, if the job can’t be preserved, with career services outside the company or outplacement services. These mentors, however, are in most cases drawn from a different organization. A special form of mentoring in Austria is cross‐mentoring, which is becoming more and more popular. Mentor and mentee are usually on the same professional and educational level but from different companies and/or different sectors like NGOs getting mentoring from profit‐oriented enterprises. Another special form of mentoring in Austria is “Mentoring for Migrants”, a common initiative of the Austrian Public‐Employment‐Service, the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and the Austrian Integration Fund. During a 6‐months‐partnership between an expert/entrepreneur of the Austrian economy (mentor) and the migrant (mentee) the mentees learn about chances and requirements on the Austrian labour market, get contacts and introduction into networks,

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motivation and employment skills. Getting familiar with the Austrian working culture and consequently adjusting the expectations of the migrants can also be part of the mentoring program.


Apprenticeship trainers in companies offering apprenticeship training

Senior employees with good work experience like work masters, workplace supervisors, experienced executives from inside the company (not a functional manager) who support junior employees/trainees/students in work placements in achieving their goals

Managers/employees responsible for HRD from inside the company fulfilling tasks along the human resource development cycle

Consultants/advisors from outside the company who take over tasks in human resource development

Entrepreneurs /experienced executives/managers from other companies


Austria has a strong and diversified system of VET that starts early at the age of 15 containing both company‐based apprenticeship training and full‐time‐school system for VET. Concerning IVET (formal VET) there is a declining number of apprenticeship posts and a probably increased demand for full‐time school‐based training places. In CVET (non formal VET) the extent of CVET activities has remained relatively stable to date. In the area of apprenticeships (dual training) the number of new admissions (apprentices in the first apprenticeship year) is steadily declining due to demographic development and relatively bad image of apprenticeship, the overall number of apprentices also drops in some sectors and shows a fairly high drop‐out rate probably due to a lack of motivation and deficits in personal and employment skills. Companies on the other hand hesitate to invest in apprenticeship trainings as they doubt the success. Fundamental measures to improve the quality of the general conditions and the long‐term employment relevance of apprenticeships have not been sufficiently taken so far. In Austria like in many other countries there is a lack of skilled employees which will increase if no measures or no efficient measures are taken to raise youth‐employment on the one hand and keep skilled long‐time employees in the job on the other hand. High costs for the vocational education and training system arise through people quitting their vocational training courses before finishing them. Statistics concerning the training of (temporarily) unemployed people show a fairly high drop‐out rate during training courses, especially if the training lasts for a longer period of time. In addition to this, statistics show a placement rate below 50% after the training courses. Leaving aside the drop outs in the placement statistics, the placement rate

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rises to more than 70%. Training institutes doing trainings on behalf of the Austrian Public‐Employment‐Service are measured by placement quotes. Regarding all this there is a clear need for mentoring in Austria. However, an important point will be, at which stage of education tutoring and mentoring sets in (cf. Mentoring for migrants).

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Denmark


A mentor is usually an experienced colleague who takes the time to help, support and guide a person to be integrated into the labor market. A mentor is also working as a role model, motivator and mentor. Basically the only condition required for being a good mentor is that you would like to spend some of your time and energy to guide and support a person who needs an extra effort. The mentor's role is, through training and support, to give the mentee a good experience at the company both professionally and socially. The mentor should not act as a social worker or psychologist, but more as a listening and sympathetic colleague who focus on helping the mentee in the best possible way. In addition, the mentor's job is to introduce the other employees at the company to the internship and make sure that everyone is aware of the possible spare considerations that are necessary for the mentee to function at work.


Mentoring in Denmark is found in almost every sector. It is a widespread approach and strategi when working with people on the edge of the educationsystem or the labour market. Many educational institution and organisations has mentors integrated as a part of the educational programs. Some places mentoring is also used in publicschools. On the labour market mentoring in use in almost every sector as a method to include people having differculties and problems.


Mentoring in Denmark has been known for quite some time. In 2003 there was made a legislation (Degree of the Act of active employment) which enabled companys to be economical compesated for some of the time they are spending on mentoring. In 2008 the legislation was extended to include mentees that are in immediate peril of loosing their postion on the labour marked or having problems maintaining their job. That means that you can use mentorsupport on more social issuse as long as they have a labour market focus. Several mentor projects has concluded that econmical supproted and financed mentoring:

Makes it easier for the mentor to solumly focus on the mentee

Makes it significantly more accepted (from other colleagues) to spend more time with the mentee

Makes it easier to expect results from the mentorprogress/course

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Cyprus


There are many situations where the mentoring system is being used in Cyprus:

1. Mentors are used in apprenticeship or placement programs, where unemployed people are being placed in a company in order to gain work experience. In these cases the mentor is the person within the company that provides coaching to the learner mostly as far as the specifics of the job are concerned.

2. Mentors are also senior employees in a company or organization that have the role to introduce new employees into the company thus implementing an informal induction program. The main role of mentors in this case is to introduce new employees to the culture and the informal rules of the company as well as to support them during their induction.

3. As far as the Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus is concerned, the term mentor is used for experienced teachers and trainers that have both the experience as well as the knowledge and skills to coach and support new teachers (specific criteria have been set by the Ministry of Education and Culture).

4. Finally, the term mentor is used a lot in the area of entrepreneurship since mentors exist to coach new entrepreneurs to set up their own business. Some of these mentors are hired through the government (e.g. Ministry of Industry and Commerce call to hire mentors that will coach new entrepreneurs) or through private institutions (especially in the case when the mentoring is a result of a European project).


Professions integrating the role of Mentors

Apprenticeship mentors in companies offering apprenticeship training

Senior employees with good work experience

Experienced teachers (approved by the Ministry of Education and Culture‐only for mentoring other teachers)

People in the HR departments that have the role to support the employees of the company during their induction but also during the development of their careers. These people may also occasionally provide personal support to the employees and provide advice for family issues, financial issues etc

External business consultants (eg mentors for new entrepreneurs etc)

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Outlook for mentoring The area of mentoring is currently underdeveloped so we do hope that this project will

have a significant impact on their development.

More specifically, as far as mentors are concerned, there is definitely room for improvement in their role in placement projects. What happens today is that company employees just call themselves mentors without any formal training or tools to use etc. The outcome from placement programmes could be maximized if the skills as well as the role of mentors are upgraded and if tools are developed to assist them in different stages of the mentoring process.

The role of mentors as senior employees or HR people that will help the induction and guide newcomers exists only in big organizations, although there is a need for such a role in small enterprises also. The mentoring process should not be accidental. People providing mentoring should have the skills to do so, and the tools to use during the process.

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United Kingdom


Mentors are people who provide personal support to individuals undergoing some form of life change. Mentors differ from trainers and guides in that they concentrate more on helping their client (the ‘mentee’) to discover and enable themselves to act independently. The context is usually learning a skill, or getting settled into a new occupation. Mentoring is very widely used in contexts from youth wok, to sport, to employment. However, in the field of employment, which most concerns the SoS project, mentoring is described more often as ‘employment guidance’, and the skills used differ somewhat. IN common practice, there is a strong emphasis on provision of information, labour market competence and provision of structured activities. The concept of mentoring and development of independent activity is present, but can be enhanced in the field. Although mentoring as an context‐free concept is applicable, in practice it needs to be adapted to the employment / labour market context, and mentors need to have some awareness and competence in labour market matters in order to provide effective support.


In principle, mentoring may be used in any profession, and aspects of it are certainly applied very widely. Within the employability professions, mentoring is seen as a key activity for employment advisors in a broad spectrum of environments: for example, colleges of further education, careers counselling, work placements, welfare‐to‐work advisors, public employment services, human resources & recruitment and so on. That said, the level of understanding of the skills and approaches applicable to mentoring varies considerably. While the ideas of motivation, self‐directed change, labour‐market competence and experiential learning are recognised, their application is often inexpert or weak. In consequence, people in the mentoring role often fall back on the provision of programmes of activity and of information, and are less able to provide personal development and behaviour‐change. Poor performance of government contracts for return‐to‐work services may in part be ascribed to these weaknesses.

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Outlook for mentoring The incidence of long‐term unemployment remains high in the UK and in Europe It has persisted over decades, and is a key issue for policy makers concerned both with social equality and with economic development. Long‐term unemployment is closely associated with social need. Those who have low levels of education, disability, lack of work experience (youth) and social stigma arising from, for example, migrant, ex‐prisoner, ethnic minority status, are much more at risk of long term unemployment and of poverty than other groups. The researches conducted in the UK within the project have shown a high degree of common understanding of the skills and behaviours required of individuals. Nothing in the studies has been surprising, and the concept of Soft Skills, though amorphous and ill‐defined, has currency among employers and among employment advisors. Reaching a better definition and more precise prescription for Soft Skill mentoring has been the main aim of the project, and continues to be important. So the need for mentoring and specifically for mentoring that empowers individuals to achieve equality of access to the labour market, is high and continuing. The uptake or application of tested methods is however not guaranteed, and we have been surprised at the lack of English‐language resources in the field. It appears that the concepts are widely accepted, but have not been rigorously defined, so tools to support mentors and mentees have been lacking, at least in the field of employment. Thus we have attempted to adopt the researched and well‐understood concepts from behavioural psychology and from employment support skills (specifically those arising from self‐efficacy theory and behavioural counselling approaches), and to apply them using the already well‐developed techniques of mentoring from the field of education and training. Our view has been that a tool that is usable and testable will make a worthwhile contribution and will be welcomed.

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Poland

General overview/Definition of mentors Mentoring is a process in which a skilled person helps another person to achieve his or her skills through time‐limited, confidential, one‐on‐one conversations and other learning activities. It is also a personal development strategy through which one person facilitates and supports the development of another by sharing resources, professional knowledge, values, skills, perspectives and attitudes. Mentoring is one of the most effective (focused on practice) methods of science, based on the partner relationship between the mentor and the mentee (eg. Student, employee). Its aim is to develop the potential of the mentee and prepare it for the forthcoming challenges. Mentors are people who have the knowledge, experience, reputation and prestige interested in supporting less experience people. The mentor is a guide, advisor, consultant, supporting ward in the development of competencies of both substantive and related to personal development. Mentor shares his knowledge and experience and builds a relationship with a mentee based on respect and trust. Characteristics of a mentor is vital wisdom combined with an authentic commitment to support a mentee in searching of his own path. This person may be someone from our loved ones, or someone who, because of their full role in life teacher, educator, coach, spiritual, superior, and so on. Sometimes it's stranger we meet on your way of life for us in a particular moment. What unites all mentors is skillful and empathic use of his own life of wisdom, to support the building of "inner wisdom" of others. Mentoring enables to discover and develop the student’s potential. Mentor inspires, stimulates and leads to action. It helps the student to reflect on their actions, posed objectives and strengthens the student in following the path chosen by himself. Mentoring is used successfully in the world in all kinds of environments: business, academia, civil society.

In which professions is the role of mentors integrated? In Poland, mentoring has not made popularity. The use of mentoring programs as a method of staff development and shaping corporate culture has intermittent nature. Part of the problem is probably the fact that quite commonly mentoring is treated as a "replacement of coaching." Although in both cases we use similar skills, however, mentoring is definitely a distinct function and purpose. Mentor uses his knowledge, experience and intuition that comes from them to support the process of exploration and reflection client using often difficult questions concerning the basic issues. These questions often lead the client to see their situation or problem from an entirely new perspective. When creating a new perspective, thus opening new possibilities for action and development.

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In Polish reality the literature distinguishes four forms of mentoring, which are the most commonly used practice of mentoring programs:

1) individual mentoring: ‐ Individual meetings, so‐called traditional mentoring. ‐ The relation of the system: one mentor to one mentee. 2) mentoring group: ‐ Meetings of a seminar . ‐ The relation of the system: one mentor works simultaneously with two or three wards. 3) e‐mentoring: ‐ Transfer of knowledge and experience with the use of IT technology: electronic mentoring, online mentoring, cybermentoring. ‐ The ratio of mentor ‐ mentee depends on the nature of the mentoring project and available technologies. 4) Intermentoring: ‐ Intergenerational transfer of knowledge and experience held internal organization. ‐ The ratio of mentor ‐ mentee in the so‐called. reversal of roles.

Although, in Poland there is no legal and well‐known directives on validation of mentors’ qualifications, in many sectors it is possible to find the mentors. The most popular is theeducational system. When a young teacher starts his professional path, he receives a support from more experienced colleague, during the development of the whole career path (it takes almost 10 years of acquiring degrees career). The task of the mentor would be watching over the support for junior teachers. The same situation concerns the nursing system. Many nurses in an informal way conduct the role of the coach ‐ talking to colleagues about their professional development and to patients ‐ about their health situation. Such conversations provide an opportunity to listen and find out what keeps them (as co‐workers and patients) before the realization of their vision. Mentors are often more experienced nurses who are very familiar with all the good and bad health, have good contacts and better access to information than younger, less experienced employees. Nurses ‐ mentors often have already made a contribution to the development of the profession, they want to share their knowledge and leadership skills to shape the younger workers. In small companies in Poland, mentoring is a natural method of introducing new employees, preparing successors and successors to perform managerial roles or ownership, preparing professionals to enter the expert skill level and improvement in their field. In Poland, more often, there is debate about mentoring programs that are implemented in the departments of global corporations to design their European or American headquarters. These institutions are based on the verified mentoring projects where everything is well defined. The project involves the process of preparing for the role of mentor, including criteria for the selection of mentor‐mentee, set targets and clarify the expected results to the issues related to the remuneration of a mentor, because these happen. Such professionally developed mentoring projects is not too much, but certainly they are no longer a rarity.

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Outlook for mentoring Unlike in developed markets (eg. Great Britain) in Poland mentoring contracts are still less common in practice. However, there are situations where the mentoring is the right solution. In our practice, such situations are the most common: 1. long‐term planning and support in the implementation of individual career path ‐ defining its key points, success factors, building its support; 2. pass through the key points of feedback for personal development ‐ the search for new values and meaning in professional and private life; 3. solving the fundamental dilemmas of life ‐ on choosing the right path for professional development and personal in harmony with your values and life's mission; 4. long‐term support for the owners, founders of the company in the next stages of its development ‐ work on strategy, competitive position, model development; 5. develop a new generation of business leaders ‐ to work on an individual mission, strategies, activities, development of emotional intelligence and social skills necessary to lead, work on creativity and new cognitive styles; 6. to create the learning and development for leaders of companies ‐ often formal educational opportunities are of little use in the context of the individual needs of the leader; the ability to support, partner dialogue with a mentor gives you the opportunity to test and verify the assumptions of the strategy and concrete action plans. An analysis of the available literature shows among other things that: 1) Mentor a new type of leadership and mentoring is a modern way of managing people. 2) Mentoring as a remedy to the crisis in the company, highlighting the importance of effective and ethical use of human and financial resources in business. 3) Mentoring can be an opportunity to find a job or further professional development of older people. 4) Mentoring of young people an opportunity to find a career in the labor market. 5) Mentoring tool for recovering corporate talent and diagnose potential employees. The report "Mentoring in the practice of Polish enterprises. Analysis of existing data and documents (desk‐research), Polish Association of Mentoring”, December 2013., P.3, http://badania.parp.gov.pl/files/74/75/726/19443.pdf, access: 17.09.2014 r.), shows that: 1) The Polish mentoring market is in the phase of development. 2) The areas in which mentoring services are the recipients are the following:

- Start‐ups, small and medium‐sized enterprises, - Organizations that are in the growth phase, - Education at secondary and tertiary levels, - Exclusion in the labor market. 2) The relevance of mentoring on the Polish market, is becoming more popular. 3) Mentoring programs are used both at institutional level and among individual

consumers who see an opportunity for professional development through participation in this type of educational activity.

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The fact that the popularity of mentoring in our country grow, has considerable merit Polish Association of Mentoring, which initiates debate, research and finally builds a portfolio of good practice. Polish Mentoring Association (PSM) was founded in 2012, in Warsaw. The main objective of PSM is to popularize the idea of mentoring in Poland, an association of professionals in the field and to create a knowledge base for both developing the role of mentor, and those seeking a mentor in life, as well as the private sector. Polish entrepreneurs do not have large experience of mentoring. The vast majority have never heard about him and those who have heard and so have a big problem with its correct definition. Many times during the conversation with the interviewer was confused with coaching, supervision of the employee or the organization of training for workers. The term "monitoring" among Polish workers is not very popular as evidenced by the results of the 400 companies, which show that at five of the respondents had heard and met with such a concept. In Poland, we meet often with the phenomenon of combining mentoring with coaching, which looking perspective, can be a threat to the independence of the existence of mentoring. Of all the companies surveyed, only 6.3% have ever used a home mentoring. Among the companies that used mentoring in the last 12 months, 75% benefited from mentoring individual, in which the assumption one mentor takes care of one student. Somewhat less frequently, because in 62% of cases benefited from the mentoring group. E‐mentoring is not popular among Polish entrepreneurs. Did not use it, none of the surveyed companies. With plans for the future shows that 27% of companies, from twenty‐five of those who have heard or met up with the concept of mentoring, planned over the next 12‐hundred months to use it. In contrast, 60% said they did not intend to use such forms of development workers in their companies in the coming year, and every tenth respondent could not answer this question. The main reasons for the lack of interest in mentoring is a mismatch between the specificity of a given company, too many responsibilities, which, on a daily basis, workers and the general lack of curiosity in this form of development. In individual cases the respondents claimed that their employees' knowledge is so vast that it does not need additional forms of its expansion. The most important factor limiting the popularity of mentoring among Polish companies is the lack of awareness of what is mentoring and what are the benefits of the organization and the participants. Another problem is the lack of a clear definition of mentoring and to determine in which situations and for which the organization will be a good solution. The recommendations of actions for the implementation of mentoring in Poland: 1. The aim of public intervention in the implementation of mentoring in Polish enterprises should be to support by the implementation of mentoring programs of these organizations that do not have the material means for the implementation of mentoring programs; 2. Specific actions for the implementation of mentoring should include: a. access to professional advisors strategic analysis and determination of objectives and tools measuring the effectiveness of mentoring; b. Access to professional advisors and tools in the selection of pairs of mentor ‐ mentee; c. Assistance in search of professional mentors, possibly co‐operation mentor; 3. Beneficiary of actions for the implementation of mentoring should be mainly companies from the micro, small and medium‐sized enterprises (hereinafter referred to as SMEs);

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4. Before starting the project financing for the SME sector should be carried out verification life cycle the company and the key challenges with which food are familiar companies from the sector. On this basis, should be the analysis carried out in which areas can be implemented mentoring programs ‐ what problems will be able to solve what areas and topics should be recommended to work with a mentor; 5. As part of the implementation of mentoring programs in Polish enterprises should appear part of research into the effectiveness of different forms, tools and methods of mentoring; 6. Measures for the implementation of mentoring should also take on education mentors mainly in building self‐awareness and the development of skills to work with people.

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Italy


The primary role of the mentor is to support the development of the mentee by promoting a caring and interest in developing their abilities and talents. Therefore, generally speaking, a mentor is expected to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the mentee and help to find their learning outcomes and enhance their potentialities. Therefore mentors should: • listen actively and give appropriate non judgmental feedback; • ensure confidentiality; • be committed and feel the joint ownership of the process; • offer advice on career development; • offer different perspectives; • offer support and encouragement; • adapt to the mentee�s needs and if necessary renegotiate, redesign the relationship; • draw on their own experience or inspiring stories when appropriate; • confront and discuss current issues; • ensure a clear ending of the relationship. And to encourage their mentee to: • listen and reflect; • clarify understanding; • share thinking; • review and reflect on their competences; • ensure confidentiality; • challenge assumptions and develop a researched view; • consider different perspectives; • develop and manage their career plan; • take responsibility for their own development; • encourage to develop and manage their own networks; • make decisions to maximise the outcomes of the mentoring relationship; • negotiate and redesigning the one to one relationship; • ensure a clear ending of the relationship.

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In which professions is the role of mentors integrated? We think the mentor’s role can be crucial in most of the professions especially in VET. Melting Pro is using it for Cultural Managers in cultural and creative sector.


MEP believes an innovative mentoring scheme could be applied tot eh cultural and creative sectors. Cultural managers and cultural professionals are always involved in rethink tehir competences adapting to the cultural market, which is for a wrong definition, often considered not productive as other sectors. As the state being we need to train new managers in adapting to the market involving mentors who have experiences in making cultural institution working.

Compiled national reports on peer coaching and mentoring

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