Mentorship programme or not

Based on the wish from the alumni team to establish a mentorship programme at Cphbusiness Alumni, a questionnaire was sent out in the October alumni newsletter in which all alumni were given the opportunity to influence the design of a mentoring programme.

The answers to this questionnaire were used by the alumni team intern, Katrine Hasle, in connection with her final bachelor project.

Results

Your answers were essential to conclude what elements a mentorship programme at Cphbusiness Alumni should include, in order to create the most value for you as alumni.

The answers to the questionnaire showed a general positive attitude towards mentorship programmes, and more than half of the respondents expressed an interest in being a mentor for another alumni, but also for having their own mentor.

Personality and interests proved to be the most important criteria for making a successful match between mentor and mentee. This match could be secured by a personality test combined with a registration form.

The ideal mentor

The results showed that the ideal mentor is someone who is professional, friendly, motivating and can provide career and personal counselling.

A mentor gets the opportunity to develop new skills and knowledge, to network with other mentors and to help a younger version of herself/himself.

A mentor can, with her/his professional experience, be a valuable sparring partner for newly educated alumni, and will be able to contribute with personal experiences that extend beyond the professional level, for example, advice on how to find the best way from education to the first job.

This will give a mentee a greater understanding of the skills and behaviours it requires to succeed in the labour market, as well as provide the opportunity to achieve a mutual relationship with its mentor, where both parties can develop in a positive direction through knowledge sharing.

Content of a mentoring programme

According to the respondents, the wishes for the content of a mentoring programme are clear guidelines, interested, skilled and committed participants, as well as the possibility of expanding one’s professional network.

In order to meet these requirements, it was concluded that one of the most important elements of a mentorship programme at Cphbusiness Alumni is hosting an introductory workshop for all participants. This workshop would aim to provide the right tools and ensure a minimum standard for all participants.

It would also be Cphbusiness Alumni's responsibility to conduct ongoing follow-up and evaluation, including ensuring that all mentor team hold the right number of meetings, in order to ensure that all parties are satisfied with the process. In conclusion, the programme should contain a final evaluation process.

Mentoring programme: Yes or No

After presenting the thesis's conclusion to the alumni team, it was clear that a successful mentoring programme should at least contain the following elements:

• Personality test, as well as processing of registrations
• Introduction workshop for all participants
• Workshop for mentors
• Workshop for mentees
• Workshop with matching mentor teams
• Ongoing follow-up and evaluation per mentor team

Each mentoring programme was estimated to last one year to ensure optimum benefit for both mentor and mentee.

It was therefore clear to the alumni team that a successful mentoring programme requires many resources. Since the alumni team realistically expects that 10 mentor teams could be established annually, it was decided that the development of a mentoring programme today would be too much strain on the current resources, when it is expected to create value for only 10 mentor teams, despite the team's great desire to establish a mentoring programme.

- For the resources that a mentoring programme of this standard, will require, we can create great value for many more alumni in other ways, for example through big exclusive events such as the Chris MacDonald event we hosted in 2017, says Charlotte Dalgaard Petersen, Alumni Manager at Cphbusiness Alumni, and continues: - However, the wish for a mentorship programme at Cphbusiness Alumni still lives on and all thoughts and ideas for the development are welcome.

If you have input to Cphbusiness Alumni regarding a mentorship programme, please write to alumni@cphbusiness.dk