INTRODUCTION TO MENTOR UP TRAINING PLATFORM

Before you is the MENTOR UP training platform. The goal of this platform is to provide a more structured and professional set of tools, methods, and procedures useful for mentors working with volunteers, especially in the European Solidarity Corps Program. This training platform will take you through 5 diverse modules, corresponding to the topics that were identified during the MENTOR UP – Training Need Analysis. This training needs analysis identifies the training needs of the mentors and what kind of training is needed to gain the competencies that are needed for a good mentor. The competencies were emphasized and identified by the mentees in the process of Training Need Analysis, the MENTOR UP manual was developed, and, now as the final step of the project you’re seeing the MENTOR UP training platform.

OVERALL AIMS OF THE MENTOR UP TRAINING PLATFORM

The online learning platform aims at offering a structured form of distance learning and ensuring the formation of young people and youth workers wishing to become or act as mentors for future ESC volunteers. It contains specific information, data, and content relevant to some of the most common issues in this context. This training design is based on the practical experience of each entity involved, and it will help young people and youth workers to be more acquaintance and familiar with the context in which such projects are being developed, to understand the context in which the mentors activate and will be drawn in writing based on procedures and conclusion of the members of the organizations involved while working with volunteers until now.

Based on the research of the partnerships, the methods, and tools of the MENTOR UP training platform help users:

• Defining what is mentorship and reflecting on the importance of the role of the mentor
• Developing new tools for the daily work of a mentor, more adapted to the volunteer’s reality
• Creating key personal mentorship skills: goal setting, time management, communication, conflict management, psychosocial support…

The purpose of this course is mentorship and mentorship relationship in the sense of helping mentors to get to know their role better, to understand what is important for the mentorship relationship, and to learn how to develop various skills which would, in turn, allow them to establish a better mentorship relationship that will benefit them and their entities.

HOW DO YOU WORK WITH THE MODULES OF THE MENTOR UP PLATFORM?

In the platform, you can find 5 different modules. Every module has different lessons that develop more concrete content.

In each lesson, you can find a short introduction, a video, some supporting materials, reflection questions, and extra links. We highly recommend that you review and do the activities on the supporting materials and dedicate the duration that each lesson set.

To do each lesson, first, read the introduction, watch the video, review the supporting materials, and then reflect on the purposed questions. If you want to know more about the topic and broaden your knowledge, review the extra links provided.

It is a good idea to plan when you are going to do all the modules. Ideally, you would dedicate 1 hour approximately to each lesson and then spend a week reflecting on what you learned and discovered.

This course is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, with the project reference: 2020-2-ES02-KA205-015305