Mentoring

Mentoring: the act or process of helping and giving advice to a younger or less experienced person, especially in a job or at school.

Cambridge Dictionary

Many Chartered Members and Fellows of IChemE willingly volunteer their time to support other members towards a professional qualification - Chartered Chemical Engineer for example. It's highly beneficial to gain the perspective and experience of someone who has already successfully completed this process who can help build your experience up to the level required to become a Chartered Member.

Benefits of having a mentor

  • contact with a Chartered Chemical Engineer
  • reassurance and confidence to apply
  • technical guidance from an experienced engineer
  • better structured progress
  • higher quality report(s)
  • improved chance of success first time.

What mentoring involves

It is recommended that a mentor reserves an hour of their time for you, approximately once every three months, in order to:

  • review - your record of training and development to date and discuss other work/training/recent experience that could be relevant to your application
  • assess - provide an objective rating as to how far you meet the standard required of a Chartered Member in each area, at the current time
  • plan - help you decide what to focus on next
  • action - assist you in identifying what you can do to make your plan happen.

Remember - it's your responsibility to prepare for meetings to ensure that you make the most of this person's time. They're volunteering to help you by sharing their knowledge and experience so use the time wisely.

How to find a mentor

Many companies will encourage this kind of support and will link individuals with a senior staff mentor. It is an obligatory commitment of all companies with IChemE Accredited Company Training Schemes (ACTS) to provide trainees with a mentor.

If you don't have access to a mentor through your company, get in touch with your local IChemE member group to see if they can help. Otherwise, contact us for assistance.

Guidance for mentors and mentees

Download our Mentoring Guidelines document which offers advice for both mentors and mentees. You can also use our Framework for Effective Mentoring to record your professional experience against each section of the Competence and Commitment (C&C) report when preparing your Chartered Member application.

What if I don't have a mentor and am ready to apply?

Even if you feel that you don't need a mentor during your training, or are already fully experienced and simply need to write your Competence and Commitment (C&C) Report, it can still be valuable to seek out at least one or two informal reviews of your C&C report prior to submission to IChemE. An external viewpoint will allow for feedback to ensure you are presenting your experience in the best possible way.

Interested in becoming a mentor?

If you're already a Chartered Member or Fellow and are interested in mentoring other members towards professional registration, visit our become a mentor page.