Mentorship aims at enhancing graduate employability

The transition from student to employee can be daunting, and frequently there’s a lack of work-readiness and guidance, which can place young graduates at a disadvantage as they enter the world of work.

This dilemma inspired the University of Pretoria (UP) to launch a Career Mentorship Programme to facilitate an easier transition and build a mutually beneficial relationship for mentor and mentee and, ultimately, for employer and employee.

The programme was piloted in 2019 and what started with 32 final-year students, or ‘mentees’, from the School of Engineering and 24 mentors during the programme’s pilot phase quickly snowballed to 66 mentees and 55 mentors this year.

The key difference between last year’s and this year’s programme was the increase in the programme’s reach. The 2020 programme saw students from two faculties participating whereas, last year, only students from a single department within a faculty participated. The faculty of engineering, built environment and information technology and the faculty of theology and religion were two of UP’s faculties that participated in 2020.

At a recent virtual event for mentors and mentees, Professor Norman Duncan, vice-principal (academic) at UP, who came up with the idea for the mentorship programme, said it would be extended to two more faculties next year.

Alumni used as mentors

The mentors involved in the programme in 2019 were invited to be part of the programme. The university’s alumni office provided names of former students who indicated through the university’s LinkedIn portal that they were willing to be mentors.

The mentors’ experience varied from being early-career engineers to senior professionals. A Google form was created and included the mentees’ names, courses and gender. The mentees also had to indicate why they wanted to be part of the programme. After that, the mentors were asked to identify which mentees they could mentor.

Initially, the plan was for mentors to meet their mentees in person at least twice in the year, and for the mentees to be afforded an opportunity to shadow their mentors at their respective places of employment.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that mentors and mentees had to rely on virtual meetings for their discussions on topics related to work and well-being, teamwork and cooperation, reporting, project controls and forecasting as well as management and leadership. In addition to face-to-face meetings, interaction took place on WhatsApp, e-mail and telephonically.

Dr Martina Jordaan, who is the head of community-based research and postgraduate studies at UP’s Mamelodi Campus, serves as the programme’s coordinator and organised the recent virtual function.

As the programme was Duncan’s brainchild, he was invited to be the keynote speaker on the night.

Networking skills

In his speech, Duncan contextualised the Career Mentorship programme and explained why it was launched.“We believe we have reached a stage in society, not only in South Africa, but internationally, where a degree alone will no longer guarantee employment or a thriving career,” he said.

“In the South African context, we know that UP graduates find employment very soon after graduation. In fact, 93% of our graduates, across the board, find employment soon after graduating.”

He added that, in South Africa, “while it is fairly easy for UP graduates to find employment, we cannot guarantee that this will be the case in 10 years’ time. A degree certificate on its own will one day not guarantee employment. One will need so much more to find suitable employment. It is for this reason that we decided to launch the UP Career Mentorship Programme to give our students a bit of a leg up,” Duncan explained.

Duncan highlighted the benefits of mentoring for both mentors and mentees and was unequivocal about the value that building a vast network adds to a person’s professional life. He urged the mentees to constantly hone their networking skills.

“Mentoring provides the mentee with an opportunity to connect with established professionals in their field and to start building their professional networks,” Duncan said.

“We can perform and excel in everything we do at university, but the minute we enter the workplace, we tend to find ourselves entering a foreign domain, especially when we have not completed an internship. It is useful to rely on networks that can help one adjust within the workplace.”

Mentors also learn from mentees

Duncan acknowledged that mentees stand to benefit more from mentoring, but was quick to point out that mentors also derive value from these relationships.

“Mentors have the opportunity to gain exposure to new or alternative views of the world and the world of work, specifically the views of newly graduated or soon-to-graduate young professionals,” he said. “Moreover, through these relationships, mentors are afforded the opportunity to further enhance their leadership and mentoring skills.”

One of the mentors was asked to reflect on the programme and its effectiveness and to share his thoughts with the audience. Paul Ssali, who mentored three students in 2019 and two in 2020, suggested that, as things stand now, the gap between university and industry does not do graduates any favours when they start their professional careers.

“It is critical that the gap between university and industry is bridged and this initiative is spot-on when it comes to doing that,” said Ssali, who is a mechanical engineer at Zutari engineering consultants, a director of Engineers Without Borders South Africa and a member of UP’s Convocation Advisory Board.

“The knowledge, tools and skill sets required in industry are constantly changing. The information we used last year and the information we are using this year is not the same and the kind of technologies we have adopted to help expedite the processes we are currently using are constantly changing. At times, we get graduates who come into our workforce and we feel that gap,” he said.