Mentoring information session

This session is designed for anyone interested in finding out more about mentoring, whether as a mentee or a mentor.

Our mentoring scheme

We now have two streams of our mentoring programme, to cater for two very different sets of needs from mentees. The first, our career development scheme, has been established for several years and is designed to help any of our present and future members with all aspects of their professional goals. The second stream is much newer and designed specifically for law students seeking traineeships, who get mentored by trainees who have recently experienced the recruitment process for themselves. We piloted this new student:trainee scheme in 2017 in Edinburgh and we were delighted with the positive response from participants and have since received a lot of interest from students and trainees alike to widen access to the programme.

In order for our scheme to grow and allow more people to take part, we're moving on to a new online matching system that will make the whole process slicker and simpler to use.

What is mentoring?

The elevator pitch for ‘why mentoring matters’ goes something like this. We all reach a stage at some point in our careers where we could benefit from some help, whether it concerns progressing to our next role, making a leap into a new company or sector, or even developing a skill we find difficult. A mentor is a dedicated person who is there to guide us through the process, by listening to our concerns, wants, needs, strengths and weaknesses. A mentor will offer wisdom, ask the right questions and be someone to help us get to where we want to be. It’s a great way for mentors to develop their people skills too, as well as having a way of giving back to support others in the profession.

The information session

In this evening session, we'll be covering some basic introductory points:

- What is mentoring?

- Who can be a mentor?

- How could a mentor benefit me and my career?

- What training do I need to be a mentor?

- What's the commitment like in order to take part?

- What does a successful mentoring relationship look like?

It'll be a relatively quick, informal after-work session, with plenty of opportunity to ask questions.