As I am now project leader for a project mainly about mentoring I thought it would be a good idea to attend a one day course in the local city. The trainers have gained their experience from a project which mentors new Danish men (as recent immigrants are referred to here) to help them in obtaining and retaining employment.
It would be too much to hope to go from zero to fully fledged professional mentor in one day and many of the participants were already mentoring to a greater or lesser extent in their current jobs. So potentially the most valuable part of the course was meeting and discussing with the participants about their experiences in diverse settings.
For me the most valuable part was probably the opportunity to attempt a coaching conversation as I have never done this consciously in a professional capacity before.
I went with a much more experienced colleague and she was dissatisfied with the lack of definition of the mentor role as against the coaching role or counselling role. So this gives me an indication of what I need to work on. The intention is not that I should become a mentor myself but that I should have a deeper understanding of what it is about so that I can better coordinate the VOCA2 project I now find myself managing.
Keywords: mentor matchworker VOCA2
