In Part 1, we discussed the reasons and advantages of implementing a Mentoring/Apprenticeship Program for your business. We begin to offer, and continue to offer here, the steps you may take it initiate your Program.
2. How to choose from your list of applicants
By now, you should have decided how many individuals will be allowed into your Mentoring/Apprenticeship program, and whether you are using a simple one-on-one program or a group of individuals having a mutual indoctrination day and then branching off into separate groups to learn the different aspects of your business.
Depending on how many prospects you have, you can call them in for interviews with the manager or, for smaller companies, the owner. Remember, the idea behind your Mentoring/Apprenticeship Program is to find enthusiastic nominees who will appreciate the opportunity to work in a field in which they already show a more than casual interest. It is to also train them from the start in the workflow that your team already has in place. It is better to start a training program with a person who already wants to learn and has the potential of being a productive employee for a longer period.
There are many things that help to show if an applicant will be a good fit for your company. Talk to them about what they might have already done in your field. Maybe they helped their parents fix something electrical and found it intriguing. Are they good listeners who appear teachable in the manner in which you wish them to perform as an employee? Are they asking questions, paying attention to your answers, and engaging in the process? Are they bringing something of their own unique nature that will add a good personal touch into the mix?
Don’t forget to include your present employees who will need to be working with your new future employees. Make this a team effort within your company, so that all your present employees are involved to see if you are considering people who are good applicants for the work that is required, along with a view to how trainable that person may be. Your present employees must always bear in mind that the whole purpose of the program is to bring a new employee up through the system. The more your employees can get involved and help, the better for everyone! Let them know they all have unique skills to share and passing on their business experiences is exactly what the Mentoring/Apprentice Program is all about. You can create Evaluation Reports your present employees can use to track the progress of your mentee(s). It gives an opportunity for your employees to give opinions of how their mentee is progressing through the program and what areas might need a little extra time for training.
3. Creating a Game Plan – Similar to a Class Curriculum
Now that you are ready to begin a new Mentoring/Apprenticeship Program for your company, you should approach it as if you were a teacher creating a class curriculum for a certain subject. This schedule of learning can be as simple or as intricate as needed by your business. You need to look at what your company does in your field and break that work down into small sections that can lead to a final overview of needed skillsets for a mentee who gets to the finish line.
Let’s continue with our electrical company example. We already established you sell electrical supplies at your business, and you send out employees to install and repair electrical equipment. If you consider a 10-week program in the summer, you might want to have your mentee spend 3 weeks helping in the company storeroom and on the floor selling the supplies. This would help your mentee learn not only the business terms, nicknames and look of the supplies (and the manufacturers), but also see how that future employee interacts with fellow workers and customers. Can you detect a problem in this person’s relationship skills? Is this person quick to pick up the needed terms and expressions of the job? Anyone with enough interest in your field should already have a basic knowledge of the equipment and supplies used in your business, so you should expect that knowledge to grow (along with an added interest) as your mentee continues with the program.
You might then move your mentee into a week or so working alongside someone who repairs items brought into the shop. This can be valuable in deciding whether the potential employee has an aptitude for working with their hands and/or problem solving (keeping in mind that not everybody does).
The final weeks could be split between going on service calls as an observer and the extra pair of hands usually needed on a crew. Can you see your mentee becoming a fully functioning member of an on-site team? Is this person eager to learn and energetic? By the end of the program, you should be able to tell if your applicant can fit into your system and be a productive member of your company.
4. What Constitutes Graduation? Can This Lead to a Job?
Ok, so now the period for your initial Mentoring/Apprenticeship Program is over, and you have some decisions to make.
Meet with your present employees and get their feedback. If you used Evaluation Reports, read them, and see where the applicant or applicants fall on the favorability and aptitude models. Did your mentee(s) accept helpful criticism and strive to learn? Is there a particular area or skillset where your mentee(s) excelled that might be a good place to start in employment, or did they show a good general grasp of the job, showing a willingness to learn and expand and actually making it a career? Did they meet your expectations or go beyond in learning and excelling? All this will show whether your first experiment with mentoring /apprenticeship was a success and could lead to making job offers to your top candidate(s). After gathering and digesting all the feedback and reports, it will be the moment when you—as the head of your company—can make the decision to offer a job for your top mentee(s), and hopefully launch a promising young aspirant into a lifelong career arc.