Improving the quality of life for people in Dorset, now and for the future Enhanced Business Mentoring Helen Heanes Senior Economic Development Officer

Improving the quality of life for people in Dorset, now and for the future

Enhanced Business Mentoring

Helen Heanes

Senior Economic Development Officer

Dorset County Council


Enhanced Business Mentoring

• What is mentoring

• Background to project

• Why we decided to do it

• Recruitment

• Seminars

• Tools for Mentors

• Targets and Outputs

• Outcomes


What is Mentoring?

Definitions of mentor and mentoring:

• An experienced or trusted counsellor or guide

• help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking

• Mentoring is a relationship between two parties, where one (the mentor) gives the other (the client/mentee) guidance and support to achieve agreed objectives


How Mentoring works


Enhanced Business Mentoring - Background

• Initial project agreed Summer ‘09 – 3 mentoring schemes

• Not all partners able to commit

• Project revised November ‘09– 2 mentoring schemes – South Devon Business Mentors, DorMen

• New outputs and direction– Project extension to end June ‘10


Progressing well


Why we decided to do it

• Ethos– Use mentoring to support more businesses

through the recession

• Increase capacity of mentoring schemes– More mentors– Technical knowledge– Skills development

• Legacy– Tools for Mentors– Mini tool kit, on-going resource


Proper partnership working

• Dorset – development of soft skills training

• Devon – focus on ‘harder’ technical skills

• Joint technical seminars– Speakers and content arranged by Devon– Venues and locations arranged by Dorset

• Mentor Toolkit and materials available to both schemes


Increasing physical capacity

• Mentor recruitment

• Induction workshops– for new mentors

• Website improvements

• New marketing materials


Increasing technical capacity

Technical Workshops -

• Mentoring in times of Recession and Recovery

• Finance Workshop for Business Mentors

• Raising Venture Capital and Alternative Finance

• Marketing Workshop

• Soft Skills Training


Soft Skills - Advising v Mentoring

ADVISING (DIRECTIVE – “PUSH”): SOLVING SOMEONE’S PROBLEM FOR THEM

TellingInstructing

Giving adviceOffering guidanceGiving feedback

Making suggestionsAsking questions that raise awareness

SummarisingParaphrasing

ReflectingListening to understand

MENTORING (NON-DIRECTIVE – “PULL”): HELPING SOMEONE TO SOLVE THEIR OWN PROBLEM


Tools for Mentors

• Devon & Dorset – impact of Recession is still being felt now

• Mini tool kit for mentors

• Video case studies

• On-line materials and mentoring aids

• Fact sheets

• Flow charts

• Question prompts with suggested solutions



The Outputs - Results so far

original target

revised target

actual (to date)

Recruit new mentors 25 20 32

Mentors trained 100 70 78

Induction workshops held 5 5 7

Training workshops held 8 8 8


Who makes use of mentoring

• Dorset 160 businesses per year– 100 since June ‘09

• Main reasons over last 12 months– finding new markets– finding new business– business dried up as result of recession


Who makes use of mentoring

• Devon 80-120 Business per year

• Main reasons over last 12 months– 75% - financial reasons– 75% - sales & marketing– 30-40% - general management – Increased call on use of UKT&I


Dorset Public Sector Network

Any Questions ?

Helen Heanes

email: [email protected]

Documents

Improving the quality of life for people in Dorset, now and for the future Enhanced Business Mentoring Helen Heanes Senior Economic Development Officer