Mentor Exchange of Experience session

Last Thursday various Scottish Mentors for CILIP qualifications from a variety of sectors and workplaces gathered together for an exchange of experience session organised by the PTEG Mentor Support Network for a couple of hours. The discussion was interesting and engaging and covered many aspects of mentoring, criteria and processes. We certainly didn’t run out of things to discuss!

So we discussed issues such as:

MENTORING RELATIONSHIP SUBJECTS

Mentoring within and outwith your own organisation and sector and differences in that e.g. in a more external relationship don’t start with a joint ‘shorthand’ of the organisation and sector so more explanation required, but a diverse experience too to compare and contrast environments.

How to encourage Candidates to create and / or share work they’ve done and put the portfolio together in a reasonable timeframe for them. ‘Life’ can often get in the way and things don’t go to the timescale initially considered, but that adds more work for a Candidate eventually, more to go through.

Problems encountered by Candidates who have been registered a long time. Mostly re having perhaps a great deal of stuff built up or very long time period to cover so difficulty with selection and word counts.

Candidates who have dropped off the radar and how to guage the status of the relationship re whether they’re continuing e.g. if you have contact details for them and it’s been a long while silent just ask if they’re still intending to submit and wanting to continue the relationship. If not can then fill in Mentor Completion Form and that up-dates the Mentor register and everyone knows where they are with it.

What kind of things people included in the Mentor Completion Form e.g. comment on how the relationship had gone overall as feedback.

PORTFOLIO COMPOSITION

Difficulties in selecting relevant information and deciding what to leave out. Portfolios should be organised and structured in a clear way and should not be ‘everything’ the Candidate has collected, but a selection based on the criteria and being the best evidence available of that.

Difficulties in showing reflection and evaluation. So the need to give specific examples of development and show what difference it made to the Candidate or wider rather than just generic general sentences. Usefullness of linking statements to evidence items to substantiate them.

The  wish to compare and contrast and look at other successful portfolio’s that have passed for guidance. Portfolio’s are each different and unique to the Candidate, so looking at others can reassure but it can also lead Candidates astray in what they assume is being looked for and how it needs to be structured. Examples of particularly good portfolio’s as identified by the Qualifications Board on CILIP website.

Virtual and long-distance Mentor / Candidate relationships and different ways of organising those (from email to DropBox to wikis etc), but it needing to be something that works for that particular Mentor and Candidate.

How Candidates structure and populate PPDPs. So, things to bear in mind re such as that it is a working document which will change and evolve and keeping it achievable and related to the whole professional rather than perhaps just the particular job they are currently in.

Requirements for electronic portfolio submission. Current regulations re on the CILIP website. Plans afoot for a VLE approach for the future but won’t be immediate so affects nothing yet.

FULFILLING QUALIFICATION CRITERIA

Being unsure if a job meets the criteria for a particular qualification.  If so can send the job description to CILIP Qualifications Department before start to ensure it can have enough content for the Candidate to be able to fulfil the criteria. If job description not accurate reflection of actual duties can do modified version.

Candidates who are out of work currently. Various reasons may apply from redundancy through to geographical moves to maternity leave. Need to ensure that timeperiod is also covered in portfolios so there isn’t time gaps in experience and learning. So showing they’re still involved and keeping up-to-date professionally in other ways e.g. reading, blogs, visits.

Candidates who are part of organisational restructures and may thus lose or gain key roles and responsibilities. Affects what they have available as evidence and thus potentially ability to meet the criteria during their Registration period. If lose a particular role or responsibility during Registration period can use evidence of it from before loss if relatively recent.

Back-dated experience in submissions for Candidates and extent to which that can be used while remaining relevant and useful. Usually last 2 / 3 years but further if particularly relevant.

The usefulness of the CPD Log. Not actually used that often but good way of showing reflection on an event rather than say just attendance at or provide the Certificate.

ASSESSMENT AND ASSESSMENT PROCESS

Usefulness of using the appropriate qualification Assessment Form the Qualifications Board uses on the CILIP Website. Shows exactly what the Board is assessing on and allows a level of doing self-check to ensure that everything is covered before submission.

That Board dates are indicative, they do not mean get it in before that and the Portfolio will be assessed at that meeting. Whole range of factors can come into play that will add time on. Passage of time not a reason to panic a Candidate in itself, could be entirely un-related to the Portfolio content or a problem therein.

Candidates wanting to know how well or otherwise they did. Can be gauged to an extent through the feedback the Board provide to Candidates on each submission, area's they may indicate require more work or say have been particularly good.  The Board request permission from Candidates to put particularly good examples of Portfolio's onto the CILIP website.

The level of transparency re the assessment process and whether more information on where portfolio’s have got to in that process would be useful. Discussion around this. On the whole we felt more information would help, but it was important it had a context and was understandable so that the information conveyed actual meaning to the candidate (i.e. 'gone to Second Pair' of itself probably wouldn't illuminate much without a link somewhere to explanatory text on what that meant).

The Future

Whether to ‘hold off’ on qualifications submissions because of the current Future Skills Project work.  Whatever comes in as a result of this there will be a transitional period, Candidates will be able to finish off what they’re started. But any new structure won’t come in immediately so there’s nothing to be gained by waiting. Nothing is coming in this year.