Mentoring programme for staff

All university employees who wish to think about their professional development and hone their expertise can participate in the mentoring programme for staff as mentees. The programme is meant for teaching and research personnel and other university staff, and those in supervisory or expert positions.

Mentoring provides personalised and tailored support for personal development and development of your own work. In mentoring, the goals are set by the actor. Goals may relate to following

developing your work and creating new practices
coping with changes
strengthening the role of your work and career development
takeover of the possible job assignments
establisihing social networks
development of well-being and self-management skills

Programme is for all university employees, except doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers, who have their own mentoring programme.

You can apply for the program throughout the year from the staff training calendar.

Advantages of the staff mentoring

Advantages for the actors:

Improved professional skills
Moving forward in career
Gathering confidence
Widened network
Transfer of knowledge
Personal support
Improved communication skills
Improved leader skills
Increased work satisfaction
Organisation culture

Advantages for the mentors:

Professional growth
Personal fulfillment
Legacy building
New perspectives
Possibilities of networking
Reinforced learning
Organisaatioon sitoutuminen
Increased work satisfaction
Constant learning

Program content and working methods

Central to the mentoring programme are independent meetings of mentoring pairs in which the pairs go over themes and topics related to working life and their own field. The pair agrees on their meeting schedule independently.

On average, mentoring pairs meet 5–8 times. The pair agrees on their meeting schedule independently.

In the first meeting the mentor and actor will get to know each other and create the rules, goals and future plans of their meetings according to the instructions given in advance.

How to apply to the staff mentoring programme?

You can apply to the programme throughout the year by sending your CV and motivation letter through staff training calendar.

Attach your CV and motivation letter to your application. Please address your motivation letter to your future mentor as she/he will receive your motivation letter and CV to get to know you as an actor.

Tell in a motivation letter about yourself, your professional goals and about your expectations for the mentoring program. The more you tell about you and your wishes, the easier the mentoring working group is to find you the right candidate to start in the programme.

You may use same principals in the motivation letter as in the job application. Letter is about A4 (one page) marketing letter about you and why you are interested in joining the mentoring programme. Tell about your motivations, interests and goals during the programme. You may use following themes in the letter:

Tell about you, your studies and career shortly.
Tell about your strengths and special areas of interests.
How do you see your future at work?
How do you wish to develop your personal skills? What about your working duties?
Why you wishes and expectations for attending the mentoring programme?
What are the themes you wish to process with your mentor?
What are the challenges in your duties and how to develop your field of expertise?
What kind of professional in your field would you like to get to know?
The letter is allowed to be your own looking and also express your own person!

How to narrow down the possible mentors?

In the application, you are asked to name three to five people who you would like to have as your mentor. Here are a few tips what to consider before filling the application form for the mentoring programme:

1. Use time to figure out your professional goals and your goals for the mentoring programme.

2. Know what you are looking for a mentor. Experience from your own field would certainly be an advantage to a mentor. However, other issues might be more important to reach your professional goals. Fist think about your goals for the mentoring programme and then think about what kind of person would be the best to mentor you.

Reach out to your existing networks and use social media to find people who you would like to have as your mentor. Your colleagues, collaborators, or superiors might have good ideas.
The mentor can be part of our university community but s/he can also come outside of our organisation. LinkedIn is a great tool if you do not have existing networks for this purpose.
Remember, finding a mentor is not just about finding someone with a great career; it is also about finding someone who understands your unique needs and can provide tailored guidance and support. Be patient and persistent in your search, and you will likely find a mentor who can significantly contribute to your professional development.

3. Write an appealing motivation letter. What kind of motivation letter would encourage you to help a stranger?

When you are ready, fill in the electronic application form and mentoring programme coordinator will contact possible mentors.

Additional information:
HRD Specialist Kati Wigren

Other mentoring programmes

If you are interested in mentoring in which a person with disabilities who is in working life acts as a mentor, contact the Accessibility Planning Officer of the university. The participants will take part in the mentoring programme that is best in line with their career stage.

Additional information:
Accessibility Planning Officer Paula Pietilä or esteet@utu.fi