Face-to-face, one-to-one mentoring
The vast majority of mentoring is done face to face and usually on a one-to-one basis. The regularity of your meetings will depend on the needs of the apprentice and your other interactions with the apprentice in the workplace. One to one meetings that focus on a mentoring style relationship allow both parties to take a step away from their usual roles in the organisations and focus their energies 100% on the development needs of the individual apprentice. The advantage of face-to face meetings is that the mentor can gather an enormous amount of information from both verbal and non-verbal communication.
Face-to-face group mentoring (peer mentoring)
This type of mentoring is an option if you have a number of apprentices although one to one time is still important. In this format, a small group of usually between six and eight apprentices come together to discuss their experiences and learning. The group acts as a sounding board towards each other, taking on the role of peer mentors, to help individual members examine their issues from different perspectives. The advantage of this type of mentoring is that the group of peers can provide a number of different experiences and viewpoints to help and support its members. In such situations, the actual mentor acts as a facilitator to the group. It is useful to know about Action Learning if you take this approach as it provides a useful structure and format that over time the apprentices themselves can take over and use independently of a facilitator.
