Engineers ask practitioners to develop capacity through mentorship

Poised to mitigate challenges of professional development, enrolees under the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Ikeja branch’s Adigun Arewa Mentorship Scheme (NIBAAMS) have been urged to take advantage of the programme to enhance skill sets and competence in their fields of specialisation.

The Chairman of the branch, Tosin Ogunmola, gave the charge during the inauguration of the 2021 cohort of the programme in Lagos.

He explained that the scheme had been specially designed to produce the crop of next engineers, who are well prepared for the profession.

While charging the participants to be diligent and show a deep commitment to learning, he said the scheme would help to build a sustainable future-proof and adaptable approach to the management of their career, adding that it would serve as a link between individuals’ drive, motivation and talent management strategy.

Launched about two years, NIBAAMS was named after one of its late members, Adigun Arewa, who was passionate about training and mentorship during his time.

Under the scheme, 15 mentors had been paired with about 30 mentees on aligned fields of study as a form of continuing professional development, providing advice, encouragement and empathy to excel in their chosen fields.

The Guardian gathered that the mentors and the mentees are expected to define the career objectives for the year and have monthly check-ins with derived action plans for mentees.

Ogunmola stated that a resource portal and job desk committee that would have oversight on the scheme would do mid-year and year-end reviews to measure the progress of each mentor-mentee pair.

He said: “The mentees need to be open-minded, ask questions and be up and doing. They are getting the opportunity on a platter of gold. We look up to them being mentees of today to become mentors of tomorrow. Beyond the profession, in life as a whole, those who have the opportunity of mentorship will always get ahead of others. It’s a case of not having to reinvent the wheel by taking advantage of those who have gone ahead of you. That is what we are bringing into our profession.”

The Chairman, NIBAAMS Committee, Idris Bamidele, assured that the scheme would expand support to the unemployed, inexperienced professionals and support career development.

He said the programme, which would run from March to November yearly would help mentees establish communication expectations, outline jointly agreed skill areas to be enhanced or developed through the partnership, and identify goals and milestones for progress measurement.

One of the mentors on the scheme, who was a past chairman of the branch, Charles Akinola said that the era of having mentors and mentees had passed away, hence the need to regenerate it.