Mentoring Introduction
In 2003, ASLI Membership approved the ‘The ASLI Mentoring and Mentor Training Programme’. (Click here for a 7-page PDF copy). This document was created by the ASLI Mentoring Task Group and was three years in the making with a full consultation of members. Definitions of Mentoring and the participants involved were defined as follows:
- Mentoring - A setting of reflection that concentrates solely on the issues/concerns of the Mentee and results with a new sense of purpose that the Mentee can act on. There is a formal induction to the relationship and reports/plans are produced. The main objective is to guide the Mentee through their experiences and encourage reflection so that Mentees make their own decisions. The end result is to catalyse the development of the Interpreter.
- Mentor - Any person, of the Mentee’s choice, who provides a reflective setting to allow the Mentee to explore issues important to her/him. The Mentor plays the role of being an Active Listener, Empowerer, and Facilitator to allow the Mentee to explore their role in a personal and professional context. It is usually a paid role and has a function to play. Extensive training is required, with a monitored practicum.
- Mentee - A Sign Language Interpreter who is a member of ASLI and wishes to explore issues away from the workplace and switch to a reflective mode. A Mentee must always want the service s/he is receiving.
As agreed with the Mentoring Working Group, the format of this training is designed to meet the needs of a variety of people who are:
- Qualified Sign Language Interpreters who wish to offer Mentoring services.
- Sign Language Interpreters who wish ‘hire’ a Mentor.
- Other qualified professionals (Deaf or otherwise) who wish to mentor Sign Language Interpreters on interpreter related issues.
Therefore the aims are:
- To train Qualified Sign Language Interpreters (Interpreter issues) and other individuals (who cover a variety of issues that s/he is qualified for i.e. BSL, Self Employment, Reflective practice, Training, etc.).
- To introduce the concept of Mentoring to ASLI’s membership and encourage the use of mentoring as a professional tool.
- To acknowledge the importance of peer support (which is comparable to Professional Mentoring).
- To assess whether the participants have applied skills to become an effective Mentor.
- ASLI Trained Mentors will need to maintain/become ASLI Members to ensure they are covered by ASLI policies and procedures.
Training
The key to all of the above is training. The ASLI training programme will be run over 3 two day workshops led by Chereme (chereme@btinternet.com) – the first workshop is open to anybody (Deaf or otherwise) with an interest in mentoring, participants can be potential mentors or mentees, . The second and third weekends are specifically for those people who want to become mentors. Some APL (underline APL and provide link to ‘APL’) (Accredited Prior Learning) has already been agreed, which will allow those with APL to enter the programme at the second or third stage to become an ASLI Trained Mentor. Please click on the following link for further information about the course content (add link her to ‘Course Content’)
Practicalities
Courses are set up by regional volunteers who are supported by the ASLI Mentoring Task Group. You just need to find a suitable venue and work us to get courses filled – ASLI will deal with advertising and bookings. As a rough guide we need 15-20 participants on the first workshop, and 10-12 on the second and third workshops. These should be run 3 months apart to allow for consolidation of learning. To give you an idea of costs Workshop 1 is about £150 and Workshops 2 & 3 about £200, plus a further £50 assessment fee payable direct to Chereme – all prices are inclusive of VAT and dependent on the number of participants.
Please contact mentortraining@asli.org.uk for further information.
ASLI are proud to announce the birth of our first Trained Mentors who passed the assessment criteria in October 2005.
I personally would like to thank all of them for their commitment to the programme and all their feedback that has helped to develop the programme further. An important role for the Task Group is to continue to ensure the programme meets the needs of ASLI members – your comments and support are valuable to us.
Please click on FIND A MENTOR in the menu to be taken to the Map. Click on your region to find a Mentor in your area – remember there are only 11 of us at the moment but more births are expected next year!
Caron Hawkings
Chair, ASLI Mentoring Task Group
November 2005