Mentor Course
Why do we need Mentors?
Let’s face it, there are many ways to skin a cat and each method has its advantages and disadvantages, some like it this way others say their way is the only way.
But in the end, you the mentor or the employer, has a preference and most likely a valid reason why you want it done in a certain way and the training provider should not interfere with that. For this, and some other reasons, we believe that practical skills are best learned in the workplace and not in a simulated environment such as the college. Unfortunately, good trades people are not necessary good trainers by default and often good intentions end in frustrations.
Irrelevant of the training provider you chose, according to the training contract, both the employer and the training provider are involved in the training. So it would be desirable that they are working together, unfortunately, this is often not working very well either.
The missing link in good and effective apprenticeship training and earning money in the process, is a trained mentor. S/he learns the ropes of competency based training and the trick on how to tackle this generation Y.
What is a mentor doing?
• As a mentor you introduce the job to the apprentice: This can be as simple as handing out the job sheet and ask her/him to report to you how they are going to tackle the task. As you know the apprentice, you know there usual short comings so you ask a few specific questions such as, where are you going to store the parts? What grid paper are you going to use. You may also give some directions such as, get it all ready but call me before you pull or I want to see it before you apply the filler. This should not take more than 2-3 minutes of your time.
• Observe the progress. There are typical signs that the apprentice is struggling with the task and your quick intervention can safe a lot of time and or prevent a small disaster. Mastering this process can reduce a lot of frustrations, bad language and safes a lot of money.
• Give feedback on job completion. This is probably the most important task of a mentor. What is good and what needs improvement. This is where the apprentice really learns and makes progress. Giving feedback is often informal and can take as little as a 2 or 3 minutes of your time.
As you can see it is not much and if followed correctly, it can make such a difference to the apprentice, the retention rate of apprentices, workflow and ultimately to your bottom line.
If your apprentice is trained by the Automotive Academy and you have successfully completed the mentor course or have a similar qualification, you can enter into a subcontracting arrangement with us to conduct the practical assessments.
We will provide you with the assessment tools for the practical assessment and guide you through the process.
For your additional involvement (the practical assessment) we will pay you $60 for each competency that is completed. This is worth $1680 per apprenticeship.
Please note that the Automotive Academy can not guarantee you work. However, if your workplace has one or several apprentices with us and agrees, we are happy to take you on board.
The Mentor course.
Part of the course is self paced, meaning that you learn in your own time on the internet. In addition, their will be 3 CrashChat (live training sessions) where you can talk to your trainer. You will be advised of the dates and times following your enrollment and a reminder will be sent 2 days before the event.
The Mentor Course includes 3 accredited competencies from the Certificate IV, Workplace Trainer and Assessor and you will get a Statement of Attainment for the following competencies.
• TAEASS401A Plan assessment activities and processes,
• TAEASS402A Assess competence
• TAEASS403A Participate in assessment validation
Should you later have a need for the entire qualification, you will get credit for these 3 completed competencies.
Prerequisite:
Cost:
Qualification: