Mentoring Programs in Local Economic Development

Mentoring refers to programs which match experienced workers with newer members of the workforce to encourage the transfer of skills and facilitate career development.

A recent report of a longitudinal study of predictable crises in business careers indicated that the prime age separation for such mentoring relationships was about ten years, and that most people between 53 and 65 were very much interested in seeking out younger staff to whom they might pass on their skills and information. (Blotnick, 1984).

Such mentoring relationships reduce the overall cost of in-house training, help to retain and upgrade new staff, retain the value of experience within the firm by transmitting it to younger members, and, if Blotnick is right, make the final work years of senior staff a rewarding one.

A wealth of information on mentoring programs has sprung up on the Internet. There is a Mentoring Network established for the training of teachers, complete with a wealth of free downloadable articles on mentoring.

The Mentor's Forum operating out of the UK, is a business oriented site on the same subject.

Some of these resources are to be found under the heading of "coaching", such as the site for Nurse Entrepreneurs .

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