Mentoring Career Starters Mentoring Career Starters
How to design mentoring for people starting or changing a career.
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
Who the beginners are
Know which start each person faces
Graduates, returners, apprentices and career changers all face a work transition.
- Graduates
- Returners
- Apprentices
- Career changers
- Interns
Career adaptability
Build four resources for transitions
Savickas and Porfeli name concern, control, curiosity and confidence as resources for transitions.
- Concern looking ahead, preparing
- Control owning the decisions
- Curiosity exploring options
- Confidence solving problems
Measuring adaptability
Measure adaptability at start and end
The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale has four scales of six items each.
Trying out a new role
Let career changers try roles first
People moving into new roles watched role models, tried provisional selves, then judged them.
- Observe role models at work
- Experiment try a style for real
- Evaluate own standards and feedback
Several developers, not one
Give each beginner several developers
In a long study of lawyers, the whole set of developers predicted retention and promotion.
- Main mentor short term: satisfaction, intent to stay
- Whole set of developers long term: retention, promotion
What to expect
Expect real but modest effects
Mentoring went with better outcomes; effects were small, larger at work and in education.
- Youth mentoring smaller effects
- Academic mentoring larger effects
- Workplace mentoring larger effects
Apprentices at work
Name a trainer for every apprentice
The EU framework asks for designated in-company trainers who work closely with schools.
Preventing drop-out
Support apprentices before and during training
The framework calls for guidance, mentoring and learner support to prevent drop-outs.
- A written agreement
- Agreed learning outcomes
- A named in-company trainer
- Pay or compensation
- Guidance and mentoring
Matching career changers
Match career changers with mentors who switched
Ask mentors about their own career moves and match on that path.
Sources
The research behind this presentation
- Savickas, M. L. & Porfeli, E. J. (2012) Career Adapt-Abilities Scale: Construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80(3), 661-673
- Ibarra, H. (1999) Provisional selves: Experimenting with image and identity in professional adaptation Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(4), 764-791
- Higgins, M. C. & Thomas, D. A. (2001) Constellations and careers: Toward understanding the effects of multiple developmental relationships Journal of Organizational Behavior, 22(3), 223-247
- Eby, L. T., Allen, T. D., Evans, S. C., Ng, T. & DuBois, D. L. (2008) Does mentoring matter? A multidisciplinary meta-analysis comparing mentored and non-mentored individuals Journal of Vocational Behavior, 72(2), 254-267
- Council of the European Union (2018) Council Recommendation of 15 March 2018 on a European Framework for Quality and Effective Apprenticeships (2018/C 153/01) Official Journal of the European Union, C 153, 2 May 2018
Start from the transition
Ask which start each person faces, then match and measure for it.