Mentoring Programmes
For careers in and outside of academia
The SGSSS runs two flagship mentoring programmes that are designed to support PhD students to explore the skills, knowledge and experience that will support your future careers within or out with academia.
In 2019, the SGSSS started collaborating with the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) to pilot its first mentoring programme focusing on interdisciplinary PhD research. In 2020, supported by the Accelerating Business Collaboration (ABC) fund, a second mentoring programme was piloted, the Career Pathways (CPM) Mentoring Programme. The CPM programme aims to connect PhD researchers to PhD Alumni with professional experience within the public, private, or non-profit sector.
Common components of the two SGSSS mentoring programmes
Mentoring is a learning relationship that includes elements of listening, advising, planning, challenging, supporting and sharing experience. In the SGSSS programmes mentoring can be understood as: “A confidential active learning process whereby an experienced, empathic person (the mentor) facilitates the development of another individual (the mentee).”
Mentees are proactive partners in this relationship and they drive the learning: they set objectives for their own learning, lead the agenda for the one-to-one sessions and decide how best to use their time. Mentors are volunteering developmental partners that complement key figures in postgraduate support (e.g., supervisors, advisors, academic mentors) and existing support structures and points of contact.
For a successful mentoring relationship, the total time commitment for the programmes is anticipated to be 8h. Core activities will entail:
- Mentoring launch event, which includes mentors and mentees of both programmes (2h)
- 4 individual virtual meetings between mentor and mentee (1h each)
- Mentoring social event, a dedicated networking event for each programme (1h)
- Mentors and mentees feedback sessions/survey to connect and learn from each other as well as contribute ideas for continuous improvement (1h)
Specific components of the SGSSS mentoring programmes
RSE Mentoring Programme | CPM Mentoring Programme |
Focus: interdisciplinary, network-building and collaboration | Focus: careers outside academia (private, public, and third sector) |
Mentors: members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh or members of the Young Academy of Scotland. | Mentors: SGSSS and partners’ universities alumni mentors |
Eligible students: ESRC-funded Social Science students in 2nd or 3rd year of PhD study (or part time equivalent) | Eligible students: all Social Science PhD researchers in Scotland, in their 2nd or 3rd year of PhD study (or part time equivalent) |
Length: Up to 12 months | Length: 6 months |
Please note that PhD researchers can only apply for one mentoring programme per year. The applications received will be evaluate considering individual motivations and suitability against the purposes of the programmes.
For any questions, please contact the Programme Coordinator Kelly Barbour– team@sgsss.ac.uk.
