What is mentorship all about?

Mentorship allows the building of a relationship between two people where the individual with more experience, knowledge, and connections is able to pass along what they have learned to a more junior individual within a certain field. The more senior individual is the mentor, and the more junior individual is the mentee.

Why is being a mentor important?

The purpose of a mentor is to help a mentee grow as a person and become the best version of himself or herself. This may involve helping a mentee achieve his or her personal or career goals, learning new ways of thinking, challenging limiting assumptions, sharing valuable life lessons, and much more.

Why is being a mentee important?

Becoming mentee will help the mentee to learn from the experiences of others. A mentee identifies the skills, knowledge and/or goals that he/she wants to achieve and communicates them to his or her mentor. A mentee works with his or her mentor to seek resources for learning by identifying people and information that might be helpful. The mentor will help the mentee to clarify career goals and course of direction.

How can alumni mentors help current mentees?

As an alumni mentor, you will be paired with a mentee/s who would like to be mentored in specific areas of interest. A mentee may be a CSIR employee or a former employee. The two parties can use any method of communication that they prefer, such as emails, online chats, telephone, etc., to engage.

As an alumni mentor, you can provide professional and career advice to those you are mentoring, guide an entrepreneur who is starting out, or help someone adapt to a new work environment or country. Sharing your knowledge and experience not only benefits the mentee, but also enhances your own skills and helps you to continue developing as a professional.

How can the CSIR help its alumni?

By linking mentors to mentees and facilitating engagements that will assist in building a successful mentor/mentee relationship. The CSIR will communicate available job offers to current alumni, as well offer job shadowing, mentorship and/or internship opportunities which they can share with other young professionals to access these opportunities.