Department of Mines & Petroleum Mentoring Program 2009 – Huge Success!
Starting this year, the Department of Mines and Petroleum have partnered with Australian Corporate Challenge in implementing an 18-month Mentoring Program offered alongside the exisiting Graduate Program within the department. The graduates, or mentees, participated first in a one-day workshop focused on the themes of organisational dynamics, mentoring, teamwork, and communication. The mentees were then joined on the second day of the workshop by senior staff within the department, their mentors.
Over the course of the workshop, the mentees and mentors worked together in a variety of hands-on activities and challenges. The atmosphere was consistenly buzzing with positive interaction, communication, and integration between the mentors and mentees. Australian Coporate Challenge serves to facilitate the workshop; however the effectiveness is solely dependent on the mentor and mentee’s attitude and willingness to work together to achieve the desired outcomes throughout the 18-month program. As such, the majority of the program is intended to be self-led, and thus a strong level of commitment and motivation is required from both parties.
This will be no problem for this group, judging by the success of the first two sessions. Thanks to the outstanding organisation by Ms Janice Tan (Strategic Planning) and Mr James Donnelly (Strategic Planning), Australian Corporate Challenge has no doubt that both the mentors and mentess will benefit tremendously from the program.