TECHNICAL BULLETIN
ISSUE 31
MAY 2019
MENTORING A SAVA LEARNER HILARY GRAYSON BSC EST MAN (HONS) DIRECTOR OF SURVEYING SERVICES, SAVA
We are seeing an increasing number of learners starting the qualification with mentoring already organised from the outset. This might be because they are already employed by a surveying firm or have used existing industry contacts to arrange ‘help’. But we still need firms or individuals to step forward to help learners without those contacts. This article explains what mentoring is, what it isn’t and how you can get involved.
What is Mentoring?
Mentoring does not have to be formal. It could be as simple as letting a learner go out with you on site or even meeting for a coffee and looking at their site notes and reports, their comparables and valuation analysis and explaining how you might do it differently and where you agree with what they have done. This depends on what is right for you and the individual learner. But it could also be formal. You might agree with a learner that they can go on site with you on a regular basis or, if you are part of a larger organisation, you might establish internal study groups where learners join a program of timetabled study groups perhaps discussing a variety of case studies. Mentoring could even involve employing the learner. This
In many ways it is easier to explain what mentoring is by explaining what it isn’t. First of all, mentoring isn’t formal training. Sava provides the training. Rather, mentoring allows a learner to ‘get under the skin’ of a surveyor and see some of the theory put into practice first hand. Mentoring is not assessment. Sava has a team of trained assessors able to provide formal feedback to the learner in a structured way that meets the quality assurance and standardised requirements of the awarding body we work with. Any feedback a mentor gives is informal and about sharing experience. A mentor might say ‘you might want to try it this way’ or ‘watch what I am doing. I am doing this because…’ whereas an assessor is not allowed to coach in this way.
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