College staff accreditation brings boost to mentor programme

Two South Essex College Teaching and Learning Specialists have been accredited by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) in a boost to the college's staff mentoring programme. 

Andy Crissell and Desmond Darcy recently became certified Advanced Mentors by the ETF which is the expert body for professional development and standards in Further Education.

The college operates a six week new staff support programme to develop skills for staff new to the teaching profession. The team will now use knowledge gained from the ETF programme to assess the current mentoring provision within the college with a view to introducing some of the elements of good practice from the programme.

The certification followed a 21 week programme held in collaboration with a number of colleges across the country to share examples of good practice within the mentoring provision.

The programme covered areas such as characteristics and skills of effective mentors, models of mentoring, developing organisational mentoring programmes, and monitoring and evaluating programmes.

Desmond said the accreditation was a huge boost for the college.

He said: “It has been a challenging yet rewarding course to gain a greater insight into the role of mentoring within the FE sector and the positive impact effective programmes can have in supporting staff to enhance and develop their teaching practices. 

“It has been very insightful to learn what other colleges are doing within the sector, make connections and build and enhance our current processes to ensure we have a programme that supports the needs of college staff.”