Pilot Technician Mentoring Scheme Goes National
The cross institution mentoring scheme (CIMS-T) is a technician lead mentoring scheme for technicians by technicians.
The concept was created as part of group work during MI TALENT’s collaborative leadership for technicians, Technicians in Higher Education tend to be highly specialised in their skills and experience. This makes finding a mentor with the required level of knowledge and experience in ones own institution very challenging, by having access to technicians across the entire UK Higher Education sector, CIMS-T is able to find mentors of the requisite knowledge and experience from across the UK.
In 2023, Trevor Hardy, Senior Laboratory Technician, along with technicians from Leicester (Lisa Bedder) and Warwick (Thea Mangels) with support from Sandy Sparks, Sarah Allen and Fiona Poole (ITSS) began preparation for running a pilot mentoring programme with 10 pairings, having secured funding from MI Talent to create training materials and run workshops, the pilot technician mentoring scheme ran in 2024 with 35 pairings. This unexpected level of demand showed the need for CIMS-T, now in the process of matching the third cohort of mentor and mentee’s CIMS-t has already helped more than 80 technicians find meaningful mentoring. The mentoring programme is part of a national scheme under the Institute of Technical Skills and Strategy (ITSS), it’s members continue their commitment to mentoring giving talks and running workshops on mentoring at conferences and technical showcases. Congratulations Trevor on your work in spear-heading this national initiative!
Trevor, along with Lisa and Thea, joined podcast hosts Charli Corcoran and Michael Bayliss to discuss the Cross-Institution Mentoring Scheme for Technicians (CIMS-T), They explore what mentoring really means and some under-discussed benefits for mentees and mentors, as well as insider details on CIMS-T. The podcast is available on YouTube.