Mentoring

Mentoring is a supportive learning relationship between two people – usually referred to as a mentor and a mentee.

Mentors support you by listening to you, drawing on their professional and personal experience, and providing information and encouragement where appropriate. A mentor would normally be a colleague more senior than you, and they may have followed a career pathway that interests you or have faced similar challenges to those you are facing. Alternatively, they may be a peer with skills or knowledge in a particular area which you’re interested in understanding more about.

MentorEd Platform

We’re delighted to announce the launch of the University’s new mentoring platform, MentorEd and we’re now inviting colleagues to sign up as mentors.

We all have experiences and expertise to share, so if you would like to support the development of others, we encourage you to register as a mentor and help colleagues unlock their potential. The role of mentor isn’t to have all of the answers. It is to be able to share your knowledge, perspective and experience and to work with the mentee and to act as a sounding-board to their ideas and proposed solutions. Your role will be to ensure that they look at as many different options and scenarios as possible. Even if you don’t have the answers, you are likely to have a very good idea of how they can go about finding the answer. If you’re still not sure, click the box below to find out more!

MentorEd mentor registration

From September, MentorEd will be open for colleagues to register as mentees so please come back to this page after then if you would like to search for a mentor.

In the meantime, we suggest you take time to think about what type of mentor you would be looking for and what you would like to gain from the mentoring relationship. Knowing your specific goals and objectives will help you to narrow your search and enable potential mentors to understand what you’re looking for.

MentorEd has the ability to host and support local mentoring schemes. Please get in touch with the Talent & Development Team on talentanddevelopment@ed.ac.uk to discuss how MentorEd can support mentoring in your area and reduce your administrative burden.

MentorEd can be accessed through single sign-on using your EASE login. Access and visibility of profiles is restricted to staff and a full Data Protection Impact Assessment has been completed.

Mentors can connect with a maximum of 4 mentees at the same time. When a mentor reaches the maximum number of mentees through the platform, new mentees will not be able to send a mentoring request. Mentors have the option at any time to set themselves as unavailable to new mentoring requests and not appear in matching/search results.

Mentees can connect with a maximum of 2 mentors at the same time. Mentees can send messages to mentors prior to confirming a match. All matches are fully voluntary and can be ended by either party.

MentorEd has undergone full accessibility testing, can be accessed on desktop and mobile, and is hosted by PLD who has an accessibility accreditation from The Shaw Trust. The Accessibility Statement can be accessed directly from the platform.

An Equality Impact Assessment has been completed and published here. Optional demographic information is requested on account creation to assist monitor and report upon the reach and impact of this mentoring platform. Responses will not be visible in user profiles nor form part of the automated matching process.

The resources on this page and on MentorEd are periodically reviewed and updated. If you have suggestions about how we can make them more useful and/or accessible for you, please get in touch with TalentAndDevelopment@ed.ac.uk by email or using the contact form on the Support section of MentorEd.

Yes! But if you’re still not sure, Talent & Development are hosting some information sessions on Tuesday 6^th August and Tuesday 25^th August for you to find out more about mentoring and the MentorEd platform and process. You will have the opportunity to ask any specific questions you may have. Open to staff from all areas, all grades, all job families, and all stages of career.

Tuesday 6^th August at 9:30am

Tuesday 25^th August at 1:30pm

You will have the opportunity to find out more about the MentorEd platform and process and ask any specific questions you may have.

Why Would You Want to Give Up Your Time To Be A Mentor?

Widen Your Perspective

By working with a mentee you will not only be able to provide your own perspective, you will gain insight into how others approach challenges and in turn may learn new things in the process. Your mentee will have knowledge and skills that you don’t, so you will have the opportunity to develop your own learning.

Improve Your Self-belief and Confidence

Once you start working with a mentee you will soon realise just how much valuable knowledge and experience you have and how even things that you think are obvious may be very valuable to a mentee.

Enhance Leadership and Management Skills

By becoming a mentor you will naturally learn how to improve your active listening and questioning skills. You will develop your ability to empathise, motivate, reason and build rapport . You will then be able to use this emotional intelligence in managing your own teams.

Improved Problem Solving Skills

Working with a mentee will expose you to problems and challenges you may not otherwise have experienced and by working with a mentee to help guide them toward a solution you will further develop your own problem solving skills and gain knowledge in new areas.

Feel Good factor

Being a mentor feels rewarding. Knowing that your skills and experience has helped someone else to succeed is a great feeling.

At the outset, both the mentor and the mentee must be open and honest about how much time they are prepared to give and agree the frequency of meetings.

It may be useful to diary in time to meet every 4-6 weeks at the beginning of the relationship, after which timescales would be a flexible arrangement between the two parties.

On average, mentoring relationships tend to last around 6 to 12 months but some can last a number of years. There is no time limit, and if you are both benefitting from the mentoring relationship, then it can continue for as long as you both feel it is useful.

What is mentoring?

With a mentor, you’re getting someone who’s already walked in your shoes. They are experienced in your field and can help fast-track you along your growth path. They can offer guidance and support, and there is usually a level of personal connection. They can save you from having to go through a steep learning curve and making unnecessary mistakes by using their hindsight to provide you with foresight.

What is coaching?

A coach takes a slightly different approach. He or she serves as an expert guiding you in a very specific area of performance such as marketing, financial support, sales, business growth, social media etc. A coach is trained to help you work out your roadblocks, hold you accountable for your business or career success and shares their tried-and-tested processes to help you get ahead.

Similarities between Coaching and Mentoring

There are many areas of overlap between coaching and mentoring. The following are suggested by Parsloe and Leedham:

Both involve conversations which raise performance and unlock potential

Both rely on the coach-mentor’s skills of listening, questioning and feedback.

Both require the coach-mentor to have a good understanding of people, organisations and the principles of learning

Both require confidentiality and clear contracting

Both require good governance, supervision, and effective processes to have the most impact.

Differences between coaching and mentoring

The following are general principles rather than hard and fast rules.

Mentoring	Coaching
Focus is on career and personal development	Focus is usually on specific development areas/issues at work
Ongoing relationship can last a long time	Relationship usually has a set duration
More informal	Generally more structured
More long term and takes a broader view of the person	Short term and focusses on specific development issues
Mentor is usually more experienced and qualified than the mentee and passes on knowledge and experience.	Coaches generally don’t need to have direct experience of their coachees occupational role
Mentoring is not performed by a line manager	Coaching can be performed by a line manager
Agenda is set by the mentee	Agenda is set by the coach

A wide selection of useful mentoring resources can be found by clicking Learn More on MentorEd.

Skill development: Mentors share their knowledge and experiences, offering insights that help mentees improve job-related skills, from technical abilities through to interpersonal communication.

Career guidance: Mentors help mentees navigate the complexities of career paths, offering advice on professional growth opportunities and strategic career moves.

Networking: Mentors introduce mentees to professional networks, increasing their visibility and access to opportunities within and beyond their current workplace.

Personal development: Mentoring often includes developing skills such as confidence, resilience, and adaptability, important for personal and career growth.

Goal setting and achievement: Mentors assist mentees in setting realistic goals and developing strategies to achieve them, providing accountability and motivation.

Feedback and reflection: Regular feedback from mentors allows mentees to reflect on their progress and areas needing improvement, building a mindset of continuous learning.

The Staff BAME Network Mentoring Programme pairs members of UoE staff that identify as BAME (including PhD students and those on temporary contracts) with other members of staff who identify as BAME to support their experiences with racism, discrimination, loneliness, and other challenges particular to being Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic at the University of Edinburgh.

Vision: Our vision is to identify and help alleviate some of the barriers to entry and success the University of Edinburgh, for example the known BAME pay gap, attrition at higher levels, and delays on the path to promotion.

If you are interested in participating in the programme, please email Lauren Hall-Lew (Lauren.Hall-Lew@ed.ac.uk), Staff BAME Network Mentoring Programme Coordinator.

Cross-Company Allyship Programme (for BAME mentees)

The Cross Company Allyship is a reciprocal mentoring agreement between the University of Edinburgh and other KPMG’s partners. It offers guided mentoring and support at no cost. Mentors get the opportunity to build leadership, self-reflection and listening skills through mentoring someone outside of their organisation. Mentees receive 1-2-1 mentoring support from a senior figure from a different business.

Previous cohorts have proved hugely successful, with 41% of mentees in cohort one receiving a promotion or moving laterally within their own organisation.

Who is an ideal Mentor?

We are looking for Grade 8 and above mentors to help support colleagues in their career mapping and development.

Who is an ideal Mentee?

To get the most of this experience, we welcome applications from BAME colleagues from any paygrade.

Edinburgh University and KPMG Cross Company Allyship Poster 2026 (853.51 KB / PDF)