A day’s workshop on mentorship has been organised for mentors of the College of Science of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The workshop, which took place at the College’s Research Commons on 23rd February 2022, was organised by the Mentorship Directorate as part of fulfilling the University’s mandate enshrined in its Mentorship Policy. The policy offers recommendations for the development of the University's human resources. Its goal is to provide effective guidelines for mentoring new employees of the University in the fields of teaching, research, and administration.
The facilitators for the mentorship training were Dr. Mrs. Vivian E. Boamah and Mrs. Akosua M. Amankwah. They took participants through “The Mentoring Relationship” and “Mentoring Session” respectively.
Dr. (Mrs.) Vivian E. Boamah introduced attendees to the 'Directions in Mentoring Relationships, Types of Mentoring, Differences, Advantages and Disadvantages, and the GROW model.' She revealed that without direction, mentoring relationships can lose focus and momentum; therefore, a mentor must focus on specific challenges, refrain from resolving challenges, and avoid assigning 'homework.'
According to her, the core characteristics of a mentor must be trustworthy, safeguarding, confidentiality, empathy, loyalty, truthfulness, integrity, and patience to have a successful mentor-mentee relationship.
Mrs. Akosua M. Amankwah also offered some recommendations for making a mentee feel at ease during the initial encounter of their session in her presentation on 'Mentoring Session, Monitoring and Evaluation.' She recommended participants ask their mentees the proper questions, provide feedback, monitor, and assess their performance. Also, Mentors would have to leave a lasting impression by tailoring the process to the mentee's specific strength and speed.
Professor (Mrs.) Ibok Oduro, the Lead Policy Champion, further outlined the benefits of mentoring for both the mentor and the mentee and urged all participants to get a copy of the KNUST Mentorship policy and utilise its content to their advantage.