“As the saying goes: if you don’t know what you stand for, you will fall for anything”. Mentorship is a one-to-one relationship between the Mentor and the Mentee which often requires a lot of skills and experiences that can trigger meaningful growth and development.
During the 3-Day Training of Trainers Workshop which happened in Calabar, selected Corps Members, Teachers and qualified Community Volunteers were taken through a life-changing journey of Mentorship. The key objective of the training was to equip mentors with the right skill set to be able to nurture quality outcomes in teenagers while delivering the programme’s standard curriculum.
Some of the learning experience hung on the major types of mentoring, both informal which involves spontaneous relationships and structured mentoring. Also, mentorship plays significant roles in the lives of young Mentees, such as helping them to grow in knowledge and creating a supportive environment where success and failure can be evaluated. The Mentor, on the other hand, gets to improve in relevant skills and expertise, finds a safe platform to share real-life experiences and eventually finds fulfilment in the Mentee’s growth.
At the end of the training, Mentors got to understand possible issues that are likely to confront their Mentees, how to guide Mentees in making informed decisions and also track program outcomes. Also, Mentors learnt that to become good Mentors, they must have to be available, approachable, humble, confident, laudable, accountable, never to stop learning and show much more than telling the right path. Mentors had the opportunity to brainstorm on practical challenges that could hinder the mentorship journey and all got to learn from the exercise.
From Cross River North: Ogoja, Yala and Bekwara, a total number of 17 Mentors (Teachers and Corps Members) attended the 3-Day Workshop while 28 Mentors and Teachers (School Counsellors) attended from Central Cross River: Calabar South and Municipality. Overall, it is safe to say that the training was a huge success, with outstanding content delivered by three seasoned facilitators: Mr Balantine Richards, Mrs Stella Ogar and Mr Ndifreke Patrick.
We are super excited to commence the mentoring journey in 24 Public Secondary Schools in Cross River State.
