Personal and Professional Development are essential elements of the road to becoming a professional, and Mentoring is an integral part of this.

A mentor is often described as a veteran professional, who undertakes an active interest in the career development of a younger or perhaps less experienced individual in the same profession.

It's important to differentiate Mentoring from Coaching - Mentors should not attempt to advise mentees directly, but should assist their mentees to come to their own conclusions as to how best to achieve their goals.

A large percentage of successful individuals across most fields have attributed part of their success to mentoring (either formal or informal), and NZCS views mentoring as an integral component of professional development and growth.

Being a Mentor is also extremely rewarding, and usually teaches us a lot about ourselves.

NZCS operates a nationwide ICT mentoring programme, however the programme is currently on hold while it is reviewed and redesigned by a Working Group set up for this purpose.

The Group's draft report has been produced and is going through final editing before being formally presented to Council.

The new Nationwide ICT Mentoring Programme is expected to be piloted and released shortly.