The perspective of a peer mentor
Author Julian Ferrante, NEW peer mentor AICR Switzerland,
Being a mentor means for me to accompany my mentee through challenges. Assist them with your experience, knowledge and perspective. It gives me much pleasure – being able to support others.
What is needed:
For a successful exchange you firstly need a genuine interest in the position of the other.
It is necessary to take time for your preparation and the conversation.
As a mentor you are responsible for creating an environment for the session in which ideas, plans and visions can flourish.
Once that is done, you need to remember that the main work during the meeting should be coming from the mentee – not you.
This was challenging for me at first because I wanted to share as much aspossible. But it is essential to let the mentee find his own way and finally do it his own way.
How do both benefit from Mentoring?
As a young person you tend to find (almost) everything boring that is old and established. We quickly get in our own way. Though everyone was once young and questioned traditional approaches, right? And that’s a good thing: In a time of rapid change, we must check our convictions more and more often for their validity.
Established concepts are not bad per se! It is best to always mind both perspectives and that applies to both parties involved.
More things to mention while benefitting from a mentoring relationship: network, opportunities, andnew acquaintances.
AICR Mentoring
Currently I am mentoring Tim Oberli, the first SwissSkills champion in hotel reception. Herewith I am involved in the preparation for his participation at WorldSkills Shanghai 2022. This is a perfect example where I can accompany a mentee through a process. I have been there myself. But more information about that is yet to come.
And if you are asking yourself how to become a certified AICR Mentor, this is what you should do:
– read the previous article on the blog: Acknolwedged, agreed, achieved
– send an email to
I am a mentor since 2020 and mentoring has met my expectations: both participants benefit from the exchange. There is no need to say that I sincerely recommend it.
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