Lesson 3. Evaluation and monitoring in mentorship
The process of assessing your mentoring programme will happen in different phases of the mentoring lifecycle. You will have to assess the design, the implementation and/or results of the mentoring relationship. And this also requires self-reflection and self-evaluation from you as a mentor. Emphasis should be put on monitoring to regularly check progress towards the achievement of pre-established objectives. For example, mentoring sessions/meetings should happen on a regular basis and follow a formal structure. You can be flexible in the conversations but have clear objectives and actions for each session. Keeping a journal of the mentoring sessions can be a good follow-up strategy. To assess the impact of your mentoring programme, you will have to bring together both evaluation and monitoring:
Evaluation
- Mentees should evaluate their experience at the end of the cycle
- Mentors should evaluate and provide recommendations during and at the end of the mentoring cycle to support ongoing self-development
Monitoring
- Session logs and action plans should be used to monitor progress throughout the mentoring cycle
Both activities will require monitoring tools, evaluation tools and effective data collection.
Handbook: Evaluating a mentoring programme[1]
[1] https://stemmentor.epscorspo.nevada.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/evaluatingmentoringprogramguide_web1.pdf