What is mentoring?

Mentoring is most often defined as a professional relationship in which an experienced

person
(the mentor) assists another (the mentoree) in developing specific skills and knowledge that
will
enhance the less-experienced person’s professional and personal growth.

What does a mentor do?

The following are among the mentor’s functions:

 Teaches the mentoree about a specific issue

 Coaches the mentoree on a particular skill
 Facilitates the mentoree’s growth by sharing resources and networks
 Challenges the mentoree to move beyond his or her comfort zone
 Creates a safe learning environment for taking risks
 Focuses on the mentoree’s total development

Definition of Coaching
There are many definitions for what coaching is all about. The dictionary defintion of coaching* is:

"A method of directing, instructing and training a person or group of people, with the aim to
achieve some goal or develop specific skills. There are many ways to coach, types of coaching
and methods to coaching. Direction may include motivational speaking and training may include
seminars, workshops, and supervised practice."

Benefits of Coaching
The benefits of coaching is that the individual will be able to improve their work performance and
skill set by receiving one-on-one training to develop career prospects.

The majority of coaching is generally delivered within an organisation by an immediate

supervisior or manager. However, many organisations these days employ professional external
coaches to come into their organisation to provide this service. Coaches should be willing to
listen, observe and support the coachee's ability, knowledge and resourcefulness.

External coaches are trained to deliver specific individual coaching sessions to meet the
individual needs, following the methods of setting clear standards, goals, use of learning,
feedback and evaluation.

ON-THE-JOB TRAINING
On-the-job training focuses on the acquisition of skills within the work environment
generally under normal working conditions. Through on-the-job training, workers
acquire both general skills that they can transfer from one job to another and specific
skills that are unique to a particular job. On-the-job training, typically includes verbal
and written instruction, demonstration and observation, and hands-on practice and
imitation. In addition, the on-the-job training process involves one employee—usually
a supervisor or an experienced employee—passing knowledge and skills on to a
novice employee.
On-the-job training is the oldest form of training. Prior to the advent of off-site training
classrooms, the only practical way of learning a job was working along side an
experienced worker in a particular trade or profession—as evinced by the practice
of apprenticeship during the Middle Ages when master craftsmen passed on skills
and knowledge to novices who worked along side them.

INTERNSHIP
An internship is an opportunity offered by an employer to potential employees, called interns, to
work at a firm for a fixed, limited period of time. Interns are usually undergraduates or students,
and most internships last for any length of time between one week and 12 months.
Internships (also called "placements", "work placements" or "industrial placements") may be
part-time or full-time. They are usually part-time if offered during a university semester and full-
time if offered during the summer, winter or Easter holidays, when they typically last 4-12 weeks.
Placements are usually full-time, and take place irrespective of term time or holiday time.

Kirkpatrick's Four-Level
Training Evaluation Model
Analyzing Training Effectiveness
Evaluate the effectiveness of your training at four levels.

If you deliver training for your team or your

organization, then you probably know how
important it is to measure its effectiveness.
After all, you don't want to spend time or
money on training that doesn't provide a good
return.
This is where Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Training Evaluation Model can
help you objectively analyze the effectiveness and impact of your
training, so that you can improve it in the future.

In this article, we'll look at each of the four levels of the Kirkpatrick
model, and we'll examine how you can apply the model to evaluate
training. We'll also look at some of the situations where it may not be
useful.

The Four Levels

Donald Kirkpatrick, Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin
and past president of the American Society for Training and
Development (ASTD), first published his Four-Level Training
Evaluation Model in 1959, in the US Training and Development
Journal.

The model was then updated in 1975, and again in 1994, when he
published his best-known work, "Evaluating Training Programs."

The four levels are:

1. Reaction.
2. Learning.
3. Behavior.
4. Results.
Let's look at each level in greater detail.

Level 1: Reaction
This level measures how your trainees (the people being trained),
reacted to the training. Obviously, you want them to feel that the
training was a valuable experience, and you want them to feel good
about the instructor, the topic, the material, its presentation, and the
venue.
It's important to measure reaction, because it helps you understand how
well the training was received by your audience. It also helps you
improve the training for future trainees, including identifying important
areas or topics that are missing from the training.

Level 2: Learning
At level 2, you measure what your trainees have learned. How much has
their knowledge increased as a result of the training?

When you planned the training session, you hopefully started with a list
of specific learning objectives: these should be the starting point for
your measurement. Keep in mind that you can measure learning in
different ways depending on these objectives, and depending on whether
you're interested in changes to knowledge, skills, or attitude.

It's important to measure this, because knowing what your trainees are
learning and what they aren't will help you improve future training.

Level 3: Behavior
At this level, you evaluate how far your trainees have changed their
behavior, based on the training they received. Specifically, this looks at
how trainees apply the information.
It's important to realize that behavior can only change if conditions are
favorable. For instance, imagine you've skipped measurement at the first
two Kirkpatrick levels and, when looking at your group's behavior, you
determine that no behavior change has taken place. Therefore, you
assume that your trainees haven't learned anything and that the training
was ineffective.

However, just because behavior hasn't changed, it doesn't mean that

trainees haven't learned anything. Perhaps their boss won't let them
apply new knowledge. Or, maybe they've learned everything you taught,
but they have no desire to apply the knowledge themselves.
Level 4: Results
At this level, you analyze the final results of your training. This includes
outcomes that you or your organization have determined to be good for
business, good for the employees, or good for the bottom line.

1. Strategic decisions:
Strategic decisions are major choices of actions and influence whole
or a major part of business enterprise. They contribute directly to
the achievement of common goals of the enterprise. They have long-
term implications on the business enterprise.

They may involve major departures from practices and procedures

being followed earlier. Generally, strategic decision is unstructured
and thus, a manager has to apply his business judgement,
evaluation and intuition into the definition of the problem. These
decisions are based on partial knowledge of the environmental
factors which are uncertain and dynamic. Such decisions are taken
at the higher level of management.

2. Tactical decisions:
ADVERTISEMENTS:

These decisions relate to the implementation of strategic decisions.

They are directed towards developing divisional plans, structuring
workflows, establishing distribution channels, acquisition of
resources such as men, materials and money. These decisions are
taken at the middle level of management.

3. Operational decisions:
These decisions relate to day-to-day operations of the enterprise.
They have a short-term horizon as they are taken repetitively. These
decisions are based on facts regarding the events and do not require
much of business judgement. Operational decisions are taken at
lower levels of management. As the information is needed for
helping the manager to take rational, well informed decisions,
information systems need to focus on the process of managerial
decision making.