Mentoring support for new apprentices - Dorset County Council - 5/5

Overview

“Before, although we provided new learners with programme information and an induction, it was just coincidence if they were in a section with another learner who might have provided support. We wanted to offer another point of contact for the first-years; to link each of our new apprentices to someone they could trust and who could provide first-hand advice on all aspects of the training. The idea of using second-year apprentices has worked really well. They make excellent mentors because they understand what new learners are experiencing. It has made the programme more enjoyable for new learners and the extra support has really helped them to make progress right from the start.”

Advice to others? “It’s important to focus on the support you give to the mentor group to make sure it is effective. But try not to make the mentor role too onerous and let the mentee direct the process.”

Jo Thomson, Learning & Development Officer

The good practice in detail

It’s dreadful when a new apprentice is unhappy at work – even worse if they actually leave – over something which might easily have been put right, if only they had felt able to say what was bothering them.  How do you ensure that new learners really understand what is expected of them - and raise any issues that may hinder their progress? Although most learning and skills providers will give their learners an induction and programme information, too often new learners can still flounder and not really get to grips with their course, particularly at the early stages. And this can seriously hinder their progress. Dorset County Council (DCC), who received a grade 1, outstanding, for its Business Administration provision, has developed a mentoring scheme which ensures that new learners receive mentor support from the very beginning of their programme.
The scheme DCC introduced has ensured that all new learners have:

• mentor support available from someone they can easily relate to
• mentoring support that complements the programme’s other support arrangements
• direct involvement in the planning and development of their mentoring.

In DCC’s last inspection report inspectors identified the ‘very effective support for learners’ and the ‘very good retention and achievement rates’ as some of the key strengths of the provision. So how does the mentoring scheme contribute to DCC’s support for learners and their progress?

Why not download the Q-box Action Plan for this example and make notes while you read?

How the scheme works

Staff at DCC knew that it can be daunting for learners to start on the apprenticeship programme. And they realised that apprentices who had already successfully completed their first year would make ideal mentors because of their experience of the programme. “We were in the same position last year so we know what it feels like,” says Kelly, second-year apprentice, Children's Services. The mentoring scheme was developed to provide all new apprentices with a mentor from the second-year group. A mentor is allocated for the duration of the mentee’s apprenticeship. The matching process of the mentee with a mentor begins as soon as the new learner has been recruited. Staff use learner information to ensure that both learners have something in common, for example they may live in the same area or have attended the same school.

What support do you offer new learners?  How do you ensure that new learners really understand what is expected of them? How effective are your arrangements for new learners to discuss their initial progress?

The mentors receive training on the process of mentoring and the skills involved. New learners have a training session during their induction to introduce them to the concept of mentoring and how the scheme works. The key areas covered are:

• What mentoring means
• The benefits of having a mentor
• The need to raise any concerns with the process
• What can be expected from the mentor
• How to contact the mentor
• How the mentor relationship will develop
• How the mentoring process is evaluated and monitored.

What structured opportunity do you give your existing learners to help new colleagues find their feet?  How easy is it for new apprentices to raise issues that may be hindering their learning? Are they aware of what they need to do to seek individual support? Are they encouraged to ask for support and guidance? Is one-to-one support made available promptly in response to learners’ needs? How do they benefit from the experience of learners who are further along in the programme?

DCC uses a mentoring agreement to establish the mentoring arrangements between both learners. This is completed at their initial meeting which is arranged at an early stage of the programme. It clarifies the relationship of peer mentoring and puts in place arrangements for the type and frequency of communications to be used. Meetings between the mentee and their mentor are then arranged on an ongoing basis. Every three months the mentees are asked to complete an evaluation of the mentor scheme. This provides valuable information to staff for their support and development of the mentoring arrangements.

How well-informed are your workplace supervisors about the support available to learners?  How does this information fit in with your appraisal scheme, and provide evidence for apprentices’ progress towards their NVQ and key skills, including ‘soft’ key skills?

For first-year apprentices, the contact with their mentor is included as part of their progress review meeting with their supervisor and a member of the learning and development team. This ensures that the implementation of the mentoring arrangements is regularly monitored.

"The mentoring provides an extra support line for learners. Mentors also benefit as it paves the way for taking on supervisory experience,"

Denise Stone, Supervisor, Business Support (and former DCC apprentice).

Staff at DCC have found that the mentoring scheme is an effective way of making second-year learners feel responsible and that their experience is valued.

How effectively are your support arrangements monitored and evaluated? What aspects of this case study could you use to improve your provision?

Uploaded - September 2008

What aspects of this case study could you use to improve your provision?

Answering all of the italicised questions in the Q boxes above will help you begin to health-check your current practice. Download all of the linked documents, compare them with your own or adapt them for your own use. Write a short action plan to get you from where you are now (what is good and what needs improving) to where you want to be.

The Building Better Practice (BBP) web resource is a great place to start if you want to benchmark yourself against other providers. It will show you the most common inspection strengths and weaknesses for each issue or topic, an analysis of the good practice found on inspection and a series of health-check questions to help you establish how you compare to others. Look specifically at how you could use BBP to improve your support for learners and the management of support for your learners.

Actions for Quality Improvement (AQI) is a set of activities with resources around which you can run staff development sessions with your teams. The activities cover all aspects of the learner’s journey and will help your staff embed quality improvement in the heart of your provision.

If you need more help, ideas and resources for the process of self assessment then look at the Learner-Centred Self Assessment (LCSA) materials. This is a web-based or hard-copy resource to help you generate a rich source of evidence for your self-assessment report through professional discussion rather than the completion of lengthy forms.

9 Data Projects to Improve Your Provision is a set of projects which help you use data to explore all aspects of the learner’s journey for improvement themes.

The Self-Assessment Surgery Projects have proved very popular at the Preparing for Inspection events. They will help you determine whether or not your SAR is fit for purpose.

Interpreting the Common Inspection Framework (CIF) is essential guidance on how to interpret the CIF for your remit and is now contained in the appendices of the Ofsted inspection handbook for work-related and adult and community learning.

The Inspection Toolkit contains step-by-step guidance on how to prepare for inspection and covers such topics as choosing the right person to be nominee, using data and self assessment.