A different kind of training and education

Keith Trickey and Sue Tuffin describe how the LA's Personnel, Training and Education Group is involved in promoting mentoring.

In 1993, encouraged by Sheila Corrall, PTEG acknowledged the growing interest in the potential of mentoring for library and information workers. The Committee undertook a series of activities to raise the profile of the process and encourage its wider use, both as an effective form of self-development and as a way for established professionals to take up the challenge of providing support for junior professionals and colleagues.

Articles in the group's newsletter Personnel, Training and Education were followed by a full programme of events at the UmbrelLA 3 Conference in June 1995. A keynote speech by David Clutterbuck, Director of the European Mentoring Centre, attracted a large and enthusiastic audience. The group followed this up by commissioning the British Library research project carried out by Michael Shoolbred and Clare Nankivell (see p. 553 in this month's Record). The PTEG Committee maintained close interest and involvement in the research project through membership of its advisory and focus groups.

We are currently working with Clare and Michael to produce a short introduction based on their research and illustrated by case studies of mentoring in practice. This will be published by PTEG later this year and sent to all branches and groups. PTEG would like to promote this initiative through regional and group presentations and workshops. If your group, branch or regional training network would like to help organise a local event, please contact Sue Tuffin (0113 2662533) or Keith Trickey (0151 2313446).

Our personal commitment to mentoring derives from practical experience. At certain (or perhaps uncertain) stages of our careers we have both benefited from the care and interest of skilled individuals who were mentors long before we knew any formal definitions of the process. Now, for Keith, working as a lecturer provides the context for formal and informal mentoring as former students contact him. This longitudinal view of someone's development as they blossom and grow in the profession is fascinating. Mentoring enabled Sue to make a major career change and she is now using this experience to develop mentoring programmes within the voluntary sector in Leeds.

Mentoring is a significant and often neglected element in the professional development process. There are critical times in everyone's career when there is a desperate need for guidance or support that is different from the kind that a partner or family and friends can provide. This is where a mentor can play a vital role, an informed, dispassionate fellow professional acting in a way which is respectful of you and using their experience to add substance to the discussion. They can help you to unpack the situation, evaluate your options and move forward in a purposeful way.

Sue Tuffin is Development and Resource Manager, Voluntary Action, Leeds. Keith Trickey is Senior Lecturer, Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University. Both are PTEG committee members.

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