MENTORING PROGRAMS

A one-on-one workplace or school site relationship during which the mentor and the student work on developing interpersonal skills, job skills, and personal qualities.

• A mentorship is a formal relationship between a student and a work-site role model who provides support and encouragement to the student.

• A mentor helps the student become accustomed to the rules, norms, and expectations of the workplace and can provide career insight and guidance based on personal career experience.

• A mentor serves as a resource to students, helping them resolve personal problems and work-related issues and conflicts. The mentorship strives to reinforce the link between the student's academic program and work-site experiences.

The aim of mentorship programs are to promote the development of the student by assisting the student in his or her quest for understanding.

The results of successful mentorships have included increased student motivation, work ethic, and better social orientation and skills. Matching students with mentors from the community provides an excellent bridge between school and the world beyond school.

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As a student, what can I expect to do?

• Fulfill the responsibilities and tasks assigned while working and learning.
• Listen to constructive feedback and learn from successes and challenges.
• Succeed through support, flexibility, and assignment of appropriate job tasks.

As a student, what am I NOT expect to do?

• Know how to do everything right away.
• Perform repetitive, boring work in isolation and without understanding.
• High-Profile work that is important to the company or agency right from the beginning.
• Everything perfectly all the time.

What should happen on the first day?

• Student orientation to the company, department, and supervisor.
• Basics of the organization, including expectations.
• Review tasks and responsibilities of the job or position.
• Establish a working relationship with the mentor.
• Complete any necessary paperwork.

What are the mentor's responsibilities?

• Spend time with the student.
• Rate the student's progress, and evaluate the student's performance.

Profile

BRIAN COBB
Apprenticeship

Ever since Brian Cobb started helping his dad on construction sites, he wondered who the people were who designed the buildings. When he reached high school, he met a teacher named Fred Avila who saw this interest in architecture almost immediately. Avila decided he could help fan the young man's flame for the craft by hiring the boy on for the summer to help him in his own architectural work.

When Avila started teaching at the Center for Advanced Research Technologies (CART), he arranged for Cobb to come with him for his junior and senior years in high school. Cobb took as many architecture classes as possible and eventually won a summer internship with Paul Stommel at Associate Design Engineering.

As Cobb tells it, the real impact of the mentoring relationships he formed with Avila and Stommel was "knowing that this is right for me." He got the opportunity to experience real world working environments with support and training from his mentors. Now, as a college freshman he already has experience with the Datacad program, some basic engineering, elevations and roof lay out, and floor plans.

Cobb is one hundred percent certain that architecture is the career for him. When he finishes his general education requirements at Fresno City College he plans on transferring to Cal Poly to earn his Bachelors Degree in Architecture. He knows that at nineteen he is already way ahead of the game.

Are you an employer?
Participate in a training program.

• ensure that you have a properly qualified workforce
• efficient use of time and resources
• shared training costs

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