Mentoring

One of our core aims in ACCESS is to empower environmental social scientists at different learning and career stages through training and other forms of professional development.   

Our own 1-1 mentoring scheme has been operating since 2023. So far, we have paired 15 Early Career Researchers with more experienced colleagues. Mentors have been drawn from the ACCESS network and include people working in academia and the public sector. 

In our mentoring report we share reflections about the process of designing and running this 1-1 mentoring scheme. The report also includes feedback from participants on the scheme, as well as templates for documents such as guidelines and invitation emails. 

Why run a mentoring scheme?

Mentoring can be an important mechanism for people development. It can bring fresh perspectives to research and practice, and offer a space to reflect and develop.

Effective mentoring can serve a range of functions for mentees, including exploration of career related goals, psychosocial support, and enhanced job performance. Quality mentorship can support both long term career success and overall job satisfaction.

Mentoring can take different forms and does not have to be based on ‘traditional, top-down’ hierarchical relationships – peer mentoring and reverse mentoring can also be valuable approaches.

What do our participants think about mentoring?

Participants in our 1-1 mentoring scheme told us they mostly discussed issues relating to professional development. Both mentors and mentees said they found the scheme beneficial:

“Enjoying exploring mentee’s research and seeing them develop” (Mentor)

“It’s been great to have outside perspective (outside of my uni) on what I’m doing and achieving.” (Mentee)

Allocating capacity to mentoring meetings could be challenging for some participants. Finding ways to support people to meet regularly might be useful, such as providing formal approval for investing time in mentoring.