How mentorship can help students acquire essential skills
The rise of social software, often known as Web 2.0, has raised awareness of the possibilities for creative and innovative learning methodologies provided by network technology. Both individuals who learn formally in institutions and those who learn informally via emergent web-based learning communities have adopted social software platforms and social networking technologies as part of their learning environment. As collaborative online learning becomes more common, new communication and collaboration abilities will be necessary in order to effectively use new technologies, achieve true digital literacy, and develop other 21st-century skills.
Integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education has been a top priority for most countries in the recent decade. Both access to ICT and the acquisition of e-skills are critical for the development of a contemporary, internationally competitive society, according to national policies and efforts. ICT training is becoming increasingly important as a means of laying the groundwork for an educational system in which new technologies are integrated into the teaching and learning process in formal, nonformal, and informal settings.
Mentors: A Key Element in Success Stories
A mentor is a person with a specific set of talents and extensive experience who volunteers to help someone else for free. Typically, this person aspires to follow in the footsteps of their mentor. Mentoring can take place in a variety of settings, though it’s most usually associated with the workplace in modern times. A seasoned professional, for example, might take a new recruit under their wing and coach them through the induction process in a company. This relationship could last for a short time or for a long time. It might be more formal, with regular meetings and agreed-upon milestones, or it could be more informal, with casual check-ins.
The Evolution of Mentoring
Mentoring has evolved from classic master-apprentice partnerships to a variety of developmental interactions that cross functional, organizational, and geographic lines. One way for protégés to find mentors to help them navigate professional opportunities is to use the Internet. Students must pick successful business executives who will serve as mentors and assist in the development of necessary skills. Mentoring connections allow student-protégés to ask questions and form networks, all while strengthening the link between classroom content and the “real world.” Students frequently retain their interactions after completing the course, and some even supplement this with face-to-face communication.
Mentorship for 21st Century Skills
Mentoring is now viewed as a practise aimed at cultivating novel educational skills and practises for the twenty-first century, utilizing technology and the power of networks, assisting students in acclimating to a new environment, and, ultimately, providing them with frameworks and abilities to help them navigate a complex professional and academic landscape.
Various databases of academic journals were searched using a very precise set of keywords: “university mentoring programme” in order to better understand the status of mentorship in Higher Education as a subject of worldwide academic investigation. Cobs Insights looked at 41 ongoing university mentor programmes to see if they’d created any case studies about the initiatives they created. Almost all the landing pages dedicated to mentorship initiatives, according to the research, did not specify any success indicators or activities designed, but rather provided an overview of these programmes. All mentoring projects evaluated, however, clearly fall into one – or more – of the categories listed below.
Types of Mentoring
Peer mentoring is a type of mentorship programme in which more experienced students welcome incoming students to campus to help them feel more at home. Faculty and staff mentors have taken on this responsibility in some circumstances.
Another type of mentoring programme is the alumni mentoring programme, which is aimed to help alumni and students create career-based mentoring ties. Mentoring programmes are also available for specific groups of mentees, such as staff, research personnel, entrepreneurs, minorities and people of colour, women, faculty, alumni, exchange students, and solely male students.
Summing Up
Mentorship programmes, if well-designed, contain a lot of untapped potential in terms of professional networking. On many ways, knowledge exchange is beneficial. It can be used as a competitive advantage to keep intergenerational wisdom, as we witnessed in the case of businesses. It can also aid in the development of professional relationships and give them a sense of belonging. When we think about mentorship in a broader sense, we see an opportunity to “connect the dots” and create social structures that support both empathic and revolutionary future approaches.