VALIDATION OF MENTORING

(Link to project website)
Project duration:24 months
Start:01.10.2005
Finish: 30.09.2007

This is a transnational project funded under measure C, thematic actions, within the frames of Leonardo da Vinci programme of the EC. The main goal of the project is to support the work carrier of the young disabled people through incorporating and validation of the mentoring programmes. The process of validation will facilitate the recognition of the acquired practical skills during those mentoring programmes. A certificate which is recognized in the participating European countries will be obtained by each participant in order to prove it to his / her potential employers.

Partners:
9 partners from 5 countries:
* Marie Curie Association, Bulgaria
* “Euroconsulting”Ltd., Bulgaria
* Municipality of Sliven, Bulgaria
* e-ISIOTIS, Greece
* H Foundation, Romania
* Dobrovita Plus, Slovenia
* Slovenian Association for Mental Health, Slovenia
* University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education, Slovenia
* French & Burt Ltd. UK

Target groups:
* Employers;
* Disabled people;
* Other disadvantaged in the labour market;

Users:
* Employers, to include personnel / human relations staff;
* Disabled people;
* Other people disadvantaged in the labour market;
* Careers advisors;
* Policy makers;

Target sectors:
* Service sector;
* IT sector;
* Restaurants and hotels;

Aims:
To identify and evaluate key features of existing mentoring programmes in order to establish the range and variety of:
* Anticipated outcomes;
* Systems used to achieve these aims, including selection and induction of mentees and mentors, training for mentees and mentors, monitoring procedures;
* Any systems for validation and recognition of the outcomes achieved by mentoring;

To establish an understanding of the national contexts in which mentoring will be introduced in Romania and Slovenia, including:
* The attitudes, knowledge and relevant experience of all stakeholders;
* The nature of existing training systems, formal and informal, both nationally and in participating organisations;
* National validation systems and others relevant to the participating organisations;

To develop and implement mentoring programmes in Romania and Slovenia, based on a thoroughgoing process of cultural adaptation;

To test, evaluate these validation systems and, in response to the outcomes, revise and enhance them for wider use;

To develop proposals for the use of mentoring and for its validation, in relation to the needs of other people disadvantaged in the labour market;

Results:
The project will:
* take established approaches (workplace mentoring systems for disabled people) and applies this in new countries where the system is still unknown;
* develop proposals to take these approaches to new target groups, in the form of other people disadvantaged in the labour market;
* develop a wholly new system of validation for workplace mentoring for disabled people, directly addressing the problem that, whatever the merits of mentoring, participants do not receive proper recognition for their achievements and there is not systematic approach that will allow the assessment of participants in different mentoring programmes;
* require close, and new, collaboration between those involved in mentoring programmes and agencies (directly and indirectly) concerned with validation;
* A symbiosis of formal and informal learning. Institutions involved in formal learning recognise, open up and contribute for validation of informal learning;

More information at: www.mentoring-validation.org