Could you be a mentor for a colleague working in planning in Hertfordshire? Or would you like to be mentored?
There is a critical lack of planners across the county and the wider industry sector. There are also recruitment and retention difficulties affecting both the public and private sectors.
In recognising this as a significant issue, the Hertfordshire Growth Board has set up a dedicated workstream to target planning resilience and capacity, with a number of schemes being introduced to support existing planners, while encouraging new planners to the industry and those, that may have left, to return.
The importance of encouraging ongoing professional development is recognised and, to provide support for the place-based sector in Hertfordshire, a professional mentoring scheme is being launched. The idea is that, if you are a planning professional from anywhere across the sector, you can register an interest and sign up to the scheme either to be a mentor or to be mentored. Once a list of mentors has been compiled, there will be an opportunity for potential mentees to register – and each will be matched with the most appropriate mentor.
To kick-start this, we need volunteer mentors to come forward please. Mentors can be at any stage of their career, whether they are in the early stages, midway through or have already retired. As a mentor, you will be an effective listener, be able to commit time to meet with your mentee, be their confidante, role model and teacher. The relationship will enable the mentor to share best practice, to reflect on their own work practices and experiences in planning, networking, and developmental opportunities. The mentor and mentee can agree how many times and when to meet, and whether that is virtually or in person. The relationship between mentor and mentee is not for a fixed period of time – it could be for six months, a year or longer. Flexibility is key to the scheme.
This is an exciting opportunity for both mentors and mentees to help to build and support a resilient, beneficial and valuable planning community across Hertfordshire. The Growth Board will provide support and assistance to matched mentors and mentees for the duration of an agreement, which of course is flexible and could be extended if agreed by both parties. We need your help in seeking our mentors, either becoming a mentor yourself or encouraging others to sign up and become a mentor.
Please fill in the form below and click ‘submit’ to register your interest. A list of mentors then mentees will be compiled, before the matching process takes place, with the scheme being formally launched at the CPD event in November.
For more information, please see our Mentoring Standards and Mentoring Agreement documents below.
Mentoring Standards Mentoring Agreement
If you have any queries or would like to discuss the scheme further, please use the button below to send a message to the Growth Board team, which will then contact you at your convenience.
Thank you for applying to be a Growth & Place Mentor or Mentee. These forms are confidential to the Hertfordshire Growth Board team supporting the mentoring selection and matching panel.
Please complete the relevant form as fully as possible. The information provided will help us to match the right mentor to the right mentee, both in terms of the mentee’s development and learning needs and the mentor’s experience, background and qualities.
Apply to be a Mentor
Mentoring is open to all Planners across Hertfordshire.