Mentoring is a professional developmental relationship that pairs a more experienced person, a mentor, with a less experienced individual—a mentee. This relationship can help to maximize the potential of both people providing either side with seasoned experience and new perspectives.
There are times that this mentorship happens without a formal structure—think of job shadowing for your first few days on a new job. While it is very helpful, sometimes you wish you had a little more support.
The Safety Codes Council offers a formal mentoring program, free of charge, to assist in professional development of safety codes officers in the gas, electrical, building, and fire disciplines. The benefits of a formal mentor/mentee program are:
The council will provide an orientation session for the mentor and mentee, a mentoring logbook and guide, check-ins during the program, and support for any issues that may arise.
Benefits of Mentorship
The benefits of mentorship are far-reaching. A well-trained and knowledgeable safety codes officer helps society and their organization. Mentor, mentee and the employer or sponsoring organization all accomplish more with great leadership and time-honored work experience.
Mentor
A mentor is a guide, a tutor, and a coach. You are a generous person who is willing to share your time and experience to help another person succeed. As a mentor, you are responsible for providing feedback, answering questions, and making time for your mentee.
The reasons for being a mentor aren’t completely altruistic—while helping to increase the skills of another person you are developing your leadership skills and gaining a fresh perspective on the work that you do.
Mentee
It is a mentees job to listen, ask questions, and observe. In return, you gain accelerated knowledge and technical skills not easily learned by course work; including, practical work experience, supervised task completion, feedback, and a variety of experiences.
Employer
Well-trained employees mean fewer mistakes and a better quality workforce. A formal mentoring program will ensure that your organization will have consistent standards of code interpretation. To get the most out of the program, you as an employer, should encourage the mentoring process within your organization, and allow time for mentorship by establishing the program in the workflow.
Admission Requirements
Mentor
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Must be certified in any of the supported disciplines (gas, plumbing, building, electrical, or fire)
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Must possess a positive attitude and aptitude for leadership
Mentee
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Must be currently employed in an organization that provides safety inspections in the relevant disciplines. Safety codes officers can be certified, probationary, or in-training
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Must be motivated! What you put into this program is directly related to what you get out of it
Program Details
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Cost: Free
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Average length of program: Approximately 6 months
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Most groups will finish their tasks in 6 months but this is dependent on workload and tasks. The time for completion can be longer or shorter.
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Orientation and closing sessions with participant feedback.
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Flexible start time
If you would like more information or are interested in becoming a mentor or mentee please contact certification@safetycodes.ab.ca