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May 2006 ISSUE

Mentoring Praised as
Rewarding Gift to Professions

 

The APEGGA Mentoring Program is in full stride, helping employed, unemployed and internationally educated members. Is this the way of giving back that you’ve been looking for?

BEYOND THE TECHNICAL
Many people, regardless of their profession, speak of how mentors have helped them develop the soft skills needed to succeed in their careers. It only makes sense, then, that those who were mentored become mentors themselves.

BY ARLENE LACK, BScN
Professional Development Coordinator

Why mentor? It’s a question we think we can answer, now that the APEGGA program is in full stride.
Following are some of the benefits listed by APEGGA members who have mentored to protégés in our program.

  • The satisfaction of helping a less-experienced member enhance work-related soft skills

  • The satisfaction of giving back to the profession as others may have helped coach you when you were a young engineer or geoscientist

  • The input of new ideas and enthusiasm from a junior professional

  • Greater awareness of the talent in the professional marketplace

  • Enhanced confidence in one’s ability to coach and share knowledge

  • Enhanced profile within one’s company and the professional community

  • The right to claim up to 20 hours of CPD under the informal category.

The purpose of the APEGGA Mentoring Program is the transfer of workplace soft skills from more experienced members to less experienced members.

The soft skills that are most frequently the objective of mentoring interactions are

  • Communication

  • Understanding organizations

  • Teamwork

  • Career development

  • Negotiation

  • Organizational.

Enhancement of these skills is the focus of Pool A of our program, which is set up for employed protégés.

There’s More
Last year we added a Pool B for unemployed members, many of whom are internationally educated graduates. The focus in Pool B is on employment-related soft skills, such as succeeding in an interview, networking etc. While mentors cannot be expected to review all the basic aspects of these skill sets with each protégé, they can act as a resource in helping the protégé identify suitable seminars.

Once protégés have learned the basics, mentors can discuss these skills and can provide overall career advice.

One of our most successful mentors said this about Pool B: “There seems to be a fear or an unwillingness to ask for help related to employment skills. I think people are afraid of being judged.” It is the encouragement of the mentors that moves protégés past their hesitancy.

Continued the mentor: “My protégé was starting a six-month work experience placement and did not know what to expect and did not know what was expected of him. It was a matter of acculturation — there’s often a corporate sub-culture and he found he needed help to understand it, to navigate through it. We began with formal goals and then changed to meet his emerging needs.

“Now that my protégé is employed in a new job, he still has a lot of questions related to language and North American culture. Although at first I wasn’t sure I had the necessary skills, I’m very pleased I have been able to alleviate his fears.”

Tom Greenwood-Madsen, P.Eng., is another of the program’s volunteer mentors. A longtime APEGGA volunteer, he says that one of the many personal benefits of being a mentor is the sense of accomplishment.

“It feels good to know I have made a positive difference in someone’s life. To me people are more important than anything, and I believe in volunteering to support my profession. APEGGA’s mentoring program is a way I can combine these two beliefs.”

New System Adopted
The new APEGGA Mentoring Program online system is up and running. Registrants are pleased with the increased user-friendliness of the new, in-house mentoring tools. Registration time will just take a few minutes, a reduction in time of about 75 per cent. That’s because the process is more straightforward, the tools easier to access.

We can all look into our work and personal lives to appreciate the mentors we have met along the way. Here’s a high-profile APEGGA example — when receiving his Honorary Life Membership, newly minted Past President Larry Staples, P.Eng., said he recognizes that his mentors have made a big difference in his career.

All of us have met those special people that made a difference in our own lives, encouraged us and helped us over the bumps in our careers. The reward of mentoring is in the making a difference in the lives of one of our own professional members.

How better than to serve our professions as a proud APEGGA mentor.

MORE INFO

Interested in becoming an APEGGA mentor?
Visit www.apegga.org
Or Contact Arlene Lack
alack@apegga.org
1-800-661-7020
780-426-3990, ext. 2820