ACP Young Professionals Mentoring Program

Who is considered a Young Professional?

A working professional age 35 and younger.

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is a relationship which gives people the opportunity to share their professional and personal skills and experiences, and to grow and develop in the process.

Typically, it is a one-to-one relationship between a more experienced person and a less experienced person. It is based upon encouragement, constructive comments, openness, mutual trust, respect and a willingness to learn and share.

It is a relationship, not just a procedure or activity, where one person professionally assists the career development of another, outside the normal manager/subordinate relationship.  (S Mind, ‘Business Mentoring and Coaching’, Training and Development, April 1993, p 26)

A deliberate pairing of a more skilled or experienced person with a lesser skilled or experienced one, with the agreed-upon goal of having the less experienced person grow and develop specific competencies. (M Murray and M Owen, Beyond the Myths of Mentoring: How to Facilitate an Effective Mentoring Program, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1991, p xiv)

Why a mentoring program?

Mentoring is an effective strategy which can contribute significantly to the career development of an individual. It has particular benefits for members of ACP as members also share a Catholic faith.

There are good reasons to consider a mentoring program:

Mentoring is a relatively easy to administer strategy which can improve the self-esteem and job competitiveness of men and women in the job market, mentoring is an effective method for the transference of professional, technical and management skills and knowledge, mentoring focuses on developing individuals skills and potential.