Mentorship and civil organisations

Mentor possibilities in Macedonia are unused II

In the Republic of Macedonia the educational or academic mentorship is planned at faculties, but in practice it is accepted to be applied only while preparing the final thesis. Mentorship in the career development as a system is the most characteristic in the schools in the Republic of Macedonia. There it functions during working introduction of young teachers and officially finishes with passing the probationary exam.

Both the academic and mentorship in the career development sometimes grow into mentorships for individual’s personal development and they last for life. There are such cases in our universities, schools, factories, companies and other institutions.

In the civil sector in the Republic of Macedonia mentorship is not represented a lot. In spite of the fact there are certain attempts in certain civil associations to use elements of mentorship at work, especially when including new members in the organisation, we still cannot talk about mentorship as a structured form of exchange of knowledge, skills and experiences.

In the USA there are examples of special programs for mentorship promotion. Some of them have grown into international programs.

The program Big brother/Big sister provides a quality volunteering service supporting children and young people to become responsible men and women, members of the social community. It is a national organisation whose work is based on relation between two personalities, an adult volunteer (mentor) and a marginalized child or young person (mentored) that most often comes from a single parent family. The program Big brother/Big sister – America, has 495 agencies located all around the country. This program offers a lot of children and young people a positive model of an adult person that helps them in their development and in the advancement of their life. All volunteers, before getting involved in the program, go through a process of selection and they are constantly monitored and supported by experts.

The program Thousands of black people started its implementation in 1963 and it involves people from the business sector, industry, public companies, government and the others that share the same objective: advancement of life of the Afro-Americans and other minorities in the USA. The main component in this non-profitable organisation is the mentor program that provides support and positive models for young members of the minority groups in the USA. The program is mainly implemented in high schools where each pupil, involved in the program, has his/her mentor, a person who is successful in his/her job.

The researches in the USA show that programs where there was mentorship as a component, lead to positive effects and influences in the social community, especially when the mentorship “man to man” applied.

We have a lot of unused opportunities for transferring knowledge and experiences, among which is the mentorship. A lot of positive effects, for example, better results in the educational process, easier overcoming obstacles at work and professional and personal development of the individual in the organisation, bigger involvement of the marginalized groups of citizens in the society and other opportunities are unused resulting from the lack of appropriate mentor programs.

Civil associations, as more flexible organisations, unlike the production and trade companies and state institutions, should consider this opportunity for development of human capacities that would lead to a lot of positive effects in the Republic of Macedonia.

 

Concept page
 

Coaching is a system for development of the personnel in the organisation, which enables the individual to learn through the process of research, through discussions and own experience.

Coaching is a study “one to one” (instructor and trainee) and it covers the following activities: counselling, leading through the process of work, using examples and illustrations, structured experience learning, planning specific working tasks, doing another job, being a member of teams, directing for reading, study tours, evaluation of performances etc.

Coaching can be used when:

·  needs for learning are clearly defined;
·  training objectives are clearly specified;
·  trainee is highly motivated;
·  quick and efficient results from the training are necessary.