Mentoring
What is meant by Mentoring?
Mentoring, as defined by the Encarta Encyclopedia, means
“serving as a guide, counselor and teacher for another person, usually in an
academic or occupational capacity”. Some professions have “mentoring programs”
in which newcomers are paired with more experienced persons who advise them and
serve as examples as they advance. Schools sometimes offer mentoring programs to
new students or students having difficulties. Mentorship refers to a
developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable
person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person — someone who can
be referred to as a protégé, or a mentee — to develop in a specified capacity.
The term ‘mentoring’ is, therefore, wider than training or
teaching; it entails providing guidance and direction at a personal level that
is often missed out in the Indian scheme of education, but is so critical for
higher levels of education and development! “Mentoring is a process for the
informal transmission of knowledge, social capital and the psychosocial support
perceived by the recipient as relevant to work, career or professional
development; mentoring entails informal communication, usually face-to-face and
during a sustained period of time, between a person who is perceived to have
greater relevant knowledge, wisdom or experience (the mentor) and a person who
is perceived to have less (the protégé).” (Bozeman, Feeney, 2007).
How is mentoring relevant to the CA profession?
The CA
profession provides a unique opportunity to its members to nurture budding
professionals, usually referred to as ‘articled students’. Articled students
generally venture into the world of Chartered Accountancy at a tender,
impressionable age, generally between 18 to 21 years. For most, this is their
first introduction to work and to some extent, ‘real life’. The experiences and
values that they imbibe during these years of articleship stay with them for the
rest of their lives. It is also their first exposure to the real world, where
they apply their knowledge to real life situations in a significant manner.
In recent years, the lives of articled students in Mumbai
have become stressful because of a variety of reasons ranging from long
commutes, long hours of work, balancing between the regime of coaching classes
and the demands of work, college attendance and examinations and an all-round
pressure to perform in exams and at work. The relationship between the student
and the principal has also changed from the ‘guru-shishya’ relationship to the
‘employer-employee’ relationship, with the principals using the articled
students as cheap resource. The principals, at times, forget their role of
grooming the students who work under them for three years to become
professionals. The ‘me first’ attitude of the current world, manifested in both
the principal and the student is also not conducive to a healthy
principal-student relationship.
It is in this context that mentoring gains relevance for the
CA profession; effective mentoring would lead to well rounded professionals,
greater respect for the principals and also enhancement to the image of the
profession by ensuring that the new entrants are professionally nurtured.
Where does BCAS come into the picture?
BCAS as an Enabler for Effective Mentoring
BCAS has always been an incubator of new ideas and an
initiator of novel initiatives. In the context of mentoring, BCAS has decided to
launch a unique initiative: Mentoring Articled Students. The objective of this
initiative is to build bridges where there are walls — to help members to start
thinking of articled students not as their workers but as a responsibility and a
privilege. This initiative entails creating a framework for mentoring articled
students that will lead to grooming and nurturing young minds beyond the
technical skills required for the profession — in the areas of communication,
self management, purposeful living and constant learning. It also entails
providing support to members who wish to ‘mentor’ their articled students by
providing a ready-to-use framework by organizing mentoring sessions in areas
where specialized guidance is required, and compiling a ‘mentoring guide’ for
use by the members.
The objective of this initiative may be summarized as:
§
Creating awareness amongst the members for the need to ‘mentor’ articled
students.
§
Preparing a ‘Framework for
Mentoring’ that can be implemented by an interested principal.
§
Creating awareness among
articled students to focus on holistic development during articleship that
stretches beyond technical training, such as developing inter-personal
communication and presentation skills, inculcating habits of reading, engaging
in purposeful activities and becoming a life-long learner.
This initiative envisages that while mentoring will be an
internal process between the principal and the student, BCAS will complement
individual efforts by providing a framework for mentoring and periodic updates
to the principals, and also by arranging group sessions for the students where
leading professionals from different fields will be invited to share their
experiences and knowledge with the students.
An Invitation to Participate
in this Unique Initiative
Recognizing that mentoring of articled students is the need
of the hour, BCAS commits itself to be a catalyst in this area and becomes an
enabler in promoting this noble cause — for the students of today are the
Chartered Accountants of tomorrow, and the Chartered Accountants of tomorrow are
the future of our profession.
So, come join us, to pioneer a mentoring movement for the students of our
profession.
