A mentor is someone who can provide support, guidance and act as a sounding board as you develop in your career. A mentor provides a different perspective on your work and experience.
The IET also provide a mentoring service for members who are seeking support with their professional development for those who have identified a specific career goal.
Mentoring through the IET mentoring service mainly focusses on those working toward professional registration as we are aware that many members aspire to professional registration in order to show the knowledge and skills they have already gained in their career and potentially improve their career prospects in the future.
What can a mentor do to support you toward professional registration?
A mentor can provide support with your overall development and ensure that your development takes you in the right direction to achieve your career goals.
They can also help you to understand the requirements of professional registration and help you to assess yourself against the UK-SPEC framework in IET Career Manager and help to check that you have coverage of all competence areas so you know when you may be ready to apply.
Do I need to register my in-company mentor with the IET?
Many companies will provide mentoring as part of their graduate and employee development programmes along with other professional development activities such as training or work-based learning opportunities. During your early career your company may assign a mentor to you to support your development toward professional registration. If they do not, you could ask senior colleagues or those who have already achieved professional registration to act as a mentor to support you through your initial professional development.
There is no need to register these mentoring relationships with the IET; the mentor will be able to provide you with guidance and support through your company scheme or on an ad hoc basis as required. They will also be able to support you using Career Manager, through the guest ticket system, but do not need to be a member of the IET in order to do this. This should give a mentee the flexibility to manage their own development and gain support as required.
You may find it useful to share the information designed for those supporting candidates toward professional registration with anyone acting as a mentor at: www.theiet.org/ipd-supporter.
The IET also provide Mentor Training for those acting as incompany mentors at both public training venues, or if you have a number of people looking for training as an incompany course.
What if I don’t have an in-company mentor?
If you are not able to find a mentor in your workplace and are an IET member, you will have access to our mentoring service. This service can link you with a mentor who can offer you help and encouragement as you work toward professional registration.
Pairings are made on a geographical basis and we look to pair a mentee with a mentor who has similar professional interests and a similar career background. When face-to-face mentoring is not possible, e-mentoring can be arranged by the IET so there is always someone available to help you.
For further details about the IET Mentoring Service, please visit: www.theiet.org/mentoring or if you have questions in general about mentoring then why not start a discussion post in our discussion forum (linked on the right hand side of the page) to gain the views of the many mentors and mentees that are a part of this community.