Mentoring can be an enriching opportunity for both the mentor and the mentee. The mentee may be able to tap into new knowledge and networks, while the mentor also has the opportunity to make a meaningful connection. If you’re interested in mentorship or have a client who is, check out these programs, guides and tools for a start. While some are broadly applicable, others are specific to certain demographics or professions.
Futurpreneur Canada
Futurpreneur provides financing, mentoring and support tools to aspiring business owners aged 18-39. It offers a mentoring program for young entrepreneurs, who are hand-matched with a mentor who has at least five years of recent entrepreneurship experience or experience as an intrapreneur.
Engineers Canada – Model guide on mentoring programs
This guide is not specific to engineering and could be used by anyone looking to set up a mentorship program or participate in mentorship. It provides a step-by-step work plan to implementing a mentorship program, a process for matching mentors and mentees, information on what training should cover and more.
Canadian Colombian Professional Association
The CCPA aims to contribute to the development and growth of the Hispanic community in Canada. Its mentoring program matches recent skilled immigrants with established Canadian professionals with similar backgrounds and interests, and oversees mentoring relationships over a four-month period.
Toronto Regional Immigrant Employment Council
TRIEC’s Mentoring Partnership connects newcomers who have limited or no Canadian work experience in their profession with mentors. Matches are required to commit 18 hours over a three-month span. A variety of resources are provided online to help mentors.
Skills for Change
The Mentoring for Change programs assists skilled internationally educated professionals in their settlement process, language skills development, entrepreneurship guidance and search for employment by matching them with industry-specific mentors. Skills for Change is a Toronto-based organization.
Government of Canada – Mentoring and Essential Skills
This tool aims to help help employers and practitioners support the development of essential skills in the workplace through mentoring. It supports the development of an informal mentoring system in the workplace, and includes tools that can help employees develop and maintain positive and successful mentoring relationships.
The Writers’ Union of Canada
This page offers a brief summary of mentorship programs across Canada for writers. For eligibility requirements and application guidelines, you can visit the programs’ websites. While the majority of listed organizations appear to have active mentorship programs, this does not seem to be the case for PEI and New Brunswick.
Career Professionals of Canada
CPC’s Mastermind Mentoring Groups are made up of a limited number of CPC members who share similar professional development goals. Each group meets via teleconference monthly, for four months, in sessions led by a facilitator.
Youth Employment Service Mentorship Manual
While this YES manual outlines a specific youth mentorship program, its guidelines may be helpful for anyone looking to get involved in youth mentorship. It lays out why mentorship can be valuable, what expectations of the mentor/mentee should be and provides a preparation checklist.
MentorCity
MentorCity is a cloud-based mentoring software available to businesses, non-profits, schools and individuals. Individuals who sign up for “Mentoring For Everyone” receive a free mentoring e-Book. It also has a Foundations Of A Mentoring Program Guide available for free download.
Did we miss something? Leave a comment below or send us a note at careerwise@ceric.ca if you have information that can help make our article even better.
