Courses & Seminars

To register - Please fill in this registration form:  Registration form Mentees (213.84 kB)

Please note that Day 2 is a half day on 17th May 12.30pm - 4pm including lunch

Intermediate: It is expected that participants have some awareness of the sector, its functions and purpose. For those who are new or trainee employees, it is expected that they are undertaking or have completed accredited training such as a relevant undergraduate degree or certificate program.

Course Outline

Mentoring has been identified as a critical factor in the professional development of future leaders, particularly within the community services and health sectors (McLoughen et al, 2009; Weng et al, 2010), which when delivered effectively can produce exceptional outcomes including:

• Increased staff awareness, reflective capacities, skills in listening and communication within the workplace
• Enhanced leadership skills, building a pool of capable leaders for the future
• Improved career pathway planning for participants
• Additional source of effective knowledge transfer and collaborative learning between mentors and mentees

Key training objective:  To build the skills and capacities of mentors and mentees, ensuring that community services and health sector staff at all levels are getting the most from mentoring as a professional development activity. 

Key subject areas covered:

• What is mentoring? Benefits, characteristics of good mentors / mentees
• Mentoring models and frameworks
• Skills in mentoring: Identifying and engaging; developing a contract; effective listening; giving and receiving feedback
• Where the rubber hits the road: taking action
• Closing the mentoring relationship
• When things go wrong
• Mentoring vs coaching vs counselling

Participant Learning Outcomes:

On completion of the Mentoring for Mentors and Mentees, participants will:

• Understand the definition and benefits of mentoring, and the characteristics of effective mentoring relationships
• Develop skills in mentoring, including identifying and engaging, effective listening in mentoring, giving and receiving feedback, taking action, addressing issues and challenges, and closing the mentoring relationship.
• Understand how to identify and manage challenges, difficult conversation, conflicts of interest and ethical dilemmas within the mentoring relationship
• Have an opportunity to participate in a mentoring relationship with support and guidance of the facilitators, including evaluating their own performance, and
• Build networks with other community services and health sector employees in the Northern Rivers region.

The target group for this course is:

• Mentors – usually people with extensive experience across a range of different fields within the sector, or with a depth of experience, expertise and training within a particular field. Mentors do not need to be senior managers, but will usually be in a senior worker position. Mentors may be currently employed within the sector or may have moved into independent employment or other fields of work, such as academia, consultancy, project development, regional coordination and facilitation.
• Mentees – may be new sector employees, trainees or students; they may also be senior or experienced personnel. The key for mentees is that they are willing to engage in the mentoring relationship to undertake additional learning towards professional development within the sector.

 Presenters: Molly Galea and Meaghan Vosz have delivered mentoring and leadership development programs within the community services and private sectors.