Entrepreneurs specialist group: Mentoring programme

Meet-a-mentor and speed mentoring forms part of these networking events. Attendees will be assessed and qualifying individuals will go on to become leads for the technology start-up schools.

These schools will allow mentees to understand first-hand the value of finding a mentor, and allow them to develop their plans and better work towards their future goals.

Mentoring: Definition and benefits

Mentoring, in the context of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, is "a mutually valuable, long-term, business advisory relationship, conducted pro bono between individuals, not corporations".

While mentoring can, and often does lead to formal advisory relationships, to board relationships or to formal non-executive roles, the assumption is that both sides will gain equally, albeit in different ways, from the exchange of expertise, experience and perspective.

Business mentoring works in the space between consulting at one extreme and life coaching at the other. Mentoring is most effective when it is non-directive: in other words, when the mentor uses open questions to encourage the mentee to think creatively and to form their own conclusions.

However, experience is part of a mentors’ value, and there will also be occasions when the mentor directly imparts information, opinion, contacts and experience.

Mentor commitment

Mentorship, this can be either short or long term. Initially it is pro-bono for six sessions or six months, but at any time the mentor and mentee can formalise the relationship.

Whilst the BCS will primarily provide technology mentors, there will be also be a drive to engage partners, such as Entrepreneurs Succeed with Us to provide non-tech mentoring, or organisations such as universities and incubators, that can provide specific mentorship, education and support.

CTO in residence

The Chief Technology Officer in residence plays a key role within an incubator.

They need to be fully aware of the latest start-up technology ecosystems, able to liaise with entrepreneurs, start-up stakeholders, and most importantly be able to lead, guide and generally inspire entrepreneurs with their accumulated experience, in growing and exiting businesses.

This role could also be called CIO (Chief Innovation Officer) in residence or entrepreneur in residence. This role has been documented as part of the programme.

BCS Entrepreneurs mentorship programme by Shakeeb Niazi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.shakeebniazi.com.