1. Choose an area to develop a mentoring program for.

The following assessment tasks will be focus on the design and implementation of a mentoring program for a business that has made the decision to include mentoring as part of its learning and development activities.

The mentoring program can include a range of areas relating to skills commonly needed in an organisation and you should consider what these might be.

Review the following document:

• Mentoring Program Report Template

The areas that you include in your mentoring plan for must be complex enough to allow you to complete all of the activities in this assessment, so review these before coming to a decision.

When you have decided on the area that you will focus your mentoring program on, write a summary of this and submit it to your assessor, asking for their approval.

1. Write a mentoring program report.

You are required to write a report that explains where, why and how the program will operate.

Your mentoring program report should include the following:

• A description of the area in which your mentoring program will run and why it needs to have one.
• An outline of the management structures you would have to negotiate to get a mentoring program up and running in your selected area and how you would get staff to support it.
• The benefits that an effective mentoring program could bring to this area.
• What the program's purpose and objectives would be.
• The program's modes and methods.
• Expected outcomes.
• Resources: what (human and financial) resources will be required to run the mentoring program.
• How the mentoring program's outcomes will be evaluated, reported and stored.

Use the Mentoring Program Report Template to guide your work.

When completed, submit your report to key stakeholders (your assessor) asking for their feedback.

1. Develop mentoring program policies and procedures.

You are required to develop tools and resources to support your planned mentoring program.

The first of these are policies and procedures that will guide the mentors and mentees as they take part in it. Use your learning materials and the internet to research mentoring policies and procedures and look at examples that have been developed by similar organisations, taking notes on the parts that could be applied to your program.

Consider how your program will function at the personal level, and develop policies and procedures that include the following:

• The program's mentor-mentee policies.
• The accountabilities and responsibilities of the people who would be involved in the program. These should relate to the management and support structures you described in your Mentoring Program Report.
• How mentors and mentees will be recruited.
• Explain criteria that can be used to screen and match mentors and mentees.
• Your program's mentor and mentee selection criteria, as well as the procedures and tools that will be used to ensure that good matches are made.
• The formal requirements for the mentor-mentee relationship.
• A discussion of cultural differences and diversity issues that may arise in mentor-mentee communications.
• The resources that will be used during the mentoring program and when it is reported on (review the rest of the activities in this Assessment Task to determine these).
• How the outcomes from mentor-mentee relationships will be reported, collated and stored (review the activities in Assessment Task 3 to determine these).

Use the Mentoring Policy and Procedures Template to guide your work.

When completed, submit the document to all parties (your assessor).

1. Develop a mentoring guide

The next resource that you are required to develop for the mentoring program is a template that will guide the mentor and mentee's work together.

The design of this guide will depend on the context of the mentoring. Research mentoring guides and templates using the internet and modify what you find to suit your needs.

The guide must describe how the mentoring process will:

• Cultivate rapport, mutual trust and teamwork between the mentor and mentee.
• Encourage the mentee's personal growth.
• Address any diversity issues or cultural differences between the mentor and mentee.

The guide should also have place for:

• The mentee's goals.
• Practical steps to achieve the mentee's goals.
• Meeting schedule for the upcoming six months.
• A summary of what is to be covered during the upcoming meetings.

When you have developed the guide, submit the document to all parties (your assessor).

1. Develop a Reporting Tool.

The final resource that you are required to develop for the mentoring program is a tool with which participants can give feedback on the program and on their mentor-mentee relationship.

This document should ask each mentor and mentee to comment on how they felt about being part of the mentor program and what aspects of it could be improved.

The reporting tool should ask questions that will help you improve your program, getting it to a stage where you could implement it in your workplace.

When completed, submit your Reporting Tool to your assessor.