Using AI responsibly and effectively: Building capability, confidence, and ethical use of AI in training.

Duration: 11m21s

Kay Schlesinger   0:05 
Hi everybody, I'm Kay Schlesinger from KG Educational Consulting and as part of AUSMAS's VET Resource Hub, this video looks at an introduction to mentoring and the kind of practices that create effective mentoring programs. So let's begin together.
 
One of the high impact teaching strategies researched by John Hattie and others looks at the notion of a learning intention to support learning. So our learning intention today : We are learning about the purpose, stakeholders, history and values central to mentoring  in the automotive and mining sectors. 

What areas will we be investigating today? Well, there are 6 topics.  

Who is who in the program? What is mentoring? A brief history of mentoring, defining the mentee and the mentor, the values of mentoring, and we'll finish with some reflection questions.  

So topic one, who is who in the program? So we have so many names for educators in training and assessment organisations. We can call them trainers, teachers, senior educators, senior lecturers. There's so many names that we use across both of our sectors. So in this series, we're going to use the word educator for all of us. 

So what is mentoring? That's our next topic that we're going to investigate. So mentoring is very much that developmental relationship between an experienced person in a sector and a less experienced person. And together they form a little community if you like, and they engage in a learning relationship that increases the skills of both people and both people get to reflect on that relationship.  I want you to think of it as a reciprocal relationship where both people have benefits. 

to give the other person and to gain from the process. So they engage in this learning relationship to increase both sets of knowledge and skills. 
I think too this notion that mentoring really operates where, you know, instructions finish. So mentoring gives us some clear clues about how to be a professional in the midst of often uncertain situations. 

And the process of mentoring can actually influence the type of educator we become in the longer term. So I think that's really important, the notion that it gives us a grounding in uncertain times, but it also influences the type of professional that we grow into, I think both parts are really crucial. 

 We're going to head into this notion that mentors bring out the gold in their people. And I think this is a lovely way of thinking of it, by focusing on progress and giving clear and fair feedback. So mentors help bring out the gold in their people. I think that's just a fabulous way of looking at this whole concept of mentoring. 

 Let's head into topic 3 and we're just going to cover a very brief history of mentoring and we're going to look at 2 interesting examples. 
So mentoring is not a new concept.  If we travel back in history, the first example that we're going to look at today comes from the Trojan War, which was 3000 years ago. And in this Trojan War, there was a character called Odysseus who entrusted his young son, Telemachus, into the care of a mentor, his trusted companion, when he goes off to fight the Trojan War. So the term mentor came from this situation in ancient times. 

 The second example takes us to the Middle Ages where we know guild professionals helped young people acquire technical skills, using very much a mentoring approach. And this approach is still used in many trade areas around Australia today. 
And, for our purposes for this video, certainly in the mining and automotive sectors. 

 So let's have a look now at topic 4, defining the mentor and the mentee, because we want to be clear about the language that we're using. So, who is the mentor? Well, this is somebody with valuable industry experience and knowledge. They've been in the game a while. But they're also somebody who helps promote learning and growth. And both of these aspects are important. It's somebody who shares their insights, gives feedback, and also connects the mentee to other people in the industry. We might also suggest that there is a spirit of goodwill to share and guide the mentee.  

So, this mentor is really important in the relationship. Conversely, the mentee is a really important part of the relationship as well. They are someone who is eager to grow, learn and develop professionally and who engages with the mentor to assist in that process. So the mentee is required to be open and curious and ready to transform knowledge, advice and feedback into their next practice. It also implies a real element of trust in the mentor, and this is a two-way process that will be discussed in other videos, and this of course develops over time. 

So let's look at topic 5, the values of mentoring. What are the key values that underpin A mentoring program? Well, the values that we really acknowledge and respect. The first one is of course respect. And then innovation, curiosity. 
courage and humour.  So these are the things, if you like, that underpin the way that we operate as both mentors and mentees in a program. It's also really important that the organisation reflects these values in the way the program is organised. And I'm sure that those values are found across the automotive and mining sectors. So that's something to consider as you move into a mentoring program, those key important values.

Topic 6 today is our reflection questions. They will help us to review our thinking and to consolidate some of the ideas. 
So I like this quote from Ghaye, Tony Ghaye, and it says, “reflective practices offer us a way of trying to make sense of the uncertainty in our workplaces and the courage to work competently and ethically at the edge of order and chaos.”  I don't know about you, but many of the organizations that I have been working in mentoring programs have had elements of chaos and disorder. I think it's part of being human in an organization. And I like Ghaye’s quote because he's telling us that reflective practices let us become wiser in that sort of context. 

So let's have a look at our questions today.  

What has been new learning for you today, perhaps in this video? 
What is the difference between the mentor and the mentee? 
What important values do you believe underpin effective mentoring? 
And what ideas can you reflect upon that might be of value to your workplace?

And our session in review, we have covered a fair amount of topics today to give us that good introduction into the concept of mentoring. So what did we look at? We looked at who is who in the program. What is mentoring? A brief history of mentoring. Defining the mentor and the mentee, the values of mentoring, and we finished up with some reflection questions. Our learning intention, which as we said at the start, would be at the beginning and the end of a session like bookends. We have been learning about the purpose, stakeholders, history and values central to mentoring  in the automotive and mining sectors.

That brings us to the end of this video. If you would like to keep building your understanding of mentoring, you can watch the other videos in the series and explore more resources available in the AUSMASA VET Resource Hub. Thanks for joining. And I look forward to seeing you in the following videos. 

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