Do mentoring programs influence participants longerterm career development A case study

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Do mentoring programs influence participants
longer-term career development? A case study

• Dr Coralie McCormack
• University of Canberra

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Case Study Womens Group Mentoring Program at UC

• Aims to
• foster the development of knowledge and skills,
  greater professional autonomy and confidence
• develop professional networks within and between
  general and academic staff across the University
• provide women with career development
  opportunities to facilitate advancement

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Group mentoring model

• 8-10 women
• Academic general staff
• University-wide
• Individuals develop implement a
  personal/professional development plan

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Groups are co-facilitated

• One academic one general staff woman
• Not discipline experts
• Help participants identify their goals
• Help structure activities to achieve goals
• Ensure effective group processes

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Program structure

• One year program
• Begins with one day on-campus workshop followed
  by 2 day off-campus residential retreat
• Groups meet fortnightly-3 hours
• Mid-year workshop
• End-of-program presentation celebration

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Interviewees

• 2000-2003 program participants
• 14 interviewees (26)
• 11 general staff, 3 academic women
• 11 employed at UC, 3 elsewhere in Canberra

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Method

• In-depth interviews, 45 mins
• Two questions
• Tell me about your experience as a participant in
  the Womens Group Mentoring Program at the
  University of Canberra?
• Tell me about your career since completing the
  Womens Group Mentoring Program at the University
  of Canberra?

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End-of-program career outcomes

• Promotion during program (5)
• Completion of tertiary teaching qualification (2)
• Commencement of PhD (1)
• Movement to new area of university(1)

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End-of-program psychosocial outcomes

• A feeling of connection e.g. increased
  understanding of university motivation for job
  for university as a workplace, reduced
  isolation, networks
• A feeling of growing oneself e.g. increased
  self-confidence, self-understanding, gaining
  knowledge skills, affirmation of self-worth

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On-going career development

• Foundation on which to build extend workplace
  knowledge, skills networks
• Catalyst for action in workplace in relation to
  on-going career development

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Build on a foundation

• Knowledge skills
• Built into everyday work tasks
• Apply for new positions interview preparation
• Collegial networks
• Facilitated everyday work tasks and transitions
  to new workplaces
• Supported close rewarding friendships, job
  applications interview preparation, on-going
  study

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Catalyst for action

• Increased self-confidence
• Step out of comfort zone
• Take up opportunities rather than let them pass
  by
• Stand up speak out in meetings
• Say yes or no
• Support other women
• Recognise work/life imbalance act to rebalance

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Limitations

• No ready-made evaluation models
• Outcomes not easy to identify measure
• Difficult to determine if outcomes attributable
  to program or other factors
• Particular mentoring model, in a small regional
  university
• Small sample size

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Conclusion

• Developers of mentoring programs are being asked
  to plan more carefully, reflect more critically
  justify expenditure.
• However, womens mentoring programs are not
  often considered to be the core business of
  anyone (De Vries, 2005 41).
• If the longer-term benefits reported here are
  also the outcomes of mentoring programs in other
  contexts program developers will be in a better
  position to argue that mentoring programs become
  part of the core business of universities.

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Recommendations

• Continue to track during-program outcomes
• Track participants ( non-participants) beyond
  the life of the program
• Conduct detailed mapping of end-of-program and
  on-going outcomes, particularly networks
  confidence
• Do this across
• Program purposes
• Contexts
• Models of mentoring

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References

• West, D McCormack, C (2003) Womens Group
  Mentoring Programs Chit chat or effective
  professional development? in LJ Moxham, S
  Walker, T Dwyer, KM Douglas, and J Wooller (eds),
  Discovery Discovering Research, Discovering
  Education, Discovering Self, proceedings of the
  2003 Women in Research Conference, Central
  Queensland University, Rockhampton, 13-14
  November.
• McCormack, C West, D (forthcoming 2006)
  Facilitated group mentoring develops key career
  competencies for university women a case study,
  Mentoring Tutoring Partnerships in Learning,
  vol 14, no 4.