SEED mid-career mentoring scheme 2024-25

05 Sep 2024

We are inviting applications to join the 2024-25 cohort of the SEED mid-career mentoring scheme – a professional and career development opportunity for the school’s mid-career academics.

About the scheme

Led by Professor Linda Evans, deputy head of school, the SEED mid-career mentoring scheme was rolled out with the first cohort of colleagues in 2023-24 (these colleagues are about to continue into their 2^nd and final year as mentees), and we’re now recruiting colleagues to join the 2024-25 cohort. 

The scheme is distinct from most other mentoring provision because it incorporates three components:

• A mentor-mentee pairing with a senior academic (usually a professor) – you’ll benefit from regular one-to-one meetings with your assigned professorial mentor
• A programme of workshops and other development-focused events
• A mutually supportive cohort format, through which mentees network with their cohort colleagues at the events referred to above.

The scheme is not primarily intended as simply an aid to getting promoted; you should not therefore expect the programme’s workshops to offer tips for writing your promotion application. But you’ll gain insights into workplace culture building, developing good collegial relations and understanding how the school and the university operate, and these will be helpful to your career development and progression. The scheme’s focus is on developing our mid-career colleagues in the widest sense, so that they may thrive and get the most out of working in SEED, and the school, in turn, will benefit from the skills, knowledge and perspectives that they will bring to their work.

Participating as a mentee

If you’re interested in joining the 2024-25 cohort of mentees, here’s what to do:

1. Check your eligibility against the criteria listed as bullet points below (under the heading ‘eligibility’);
2. If you meet all of those criteria, check your availability on the dates listed below of workshops and other developmental events that will form an integral part of the mid-career mentoring programme;
3. To find out more, come along to an information session (lasting around an hour) on Wednesday 16^th October at 15.00. 

Please register for this information session by completing the following form https://forms.office.com/e/xGhxAU4uwR. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available, and the venue details will be sent in due course to colleagues who have registered for the meeting.

If you have any questions, please address them to SEEDSchoolOffice@manchester.ac.uk in the first instance.

Eligibility

To participate in the scheme, you must be what is broadly considered a mid-career academic – a categorisation that reflects a combination of your length of experience and your career stage, both of which are partly indicated by your having reached certain organisational-determined milestones. More specifically, to be considered a potential SEED mid-career mentee, you:

• must have fully completed and passed the HNAP – the SEED mid-career mentoring scheme is intended to fill a post-HNAP gap in professional development provision (most of the 2023-24 cohort had completed the HNAP several years ago);
• must have completed probation – preferably, at least one year ago;
• are likely to have held an academic post at an HEI (fixed term or permanent) for at least five years (most of the 2023-24 cohort had considerably more than five years’ such experience);
• may hold an appointment at any academic grade: lecturer, senior tutor, senior lecturer, reader (or even zone E professor, if you feel you would benefit from participating in the scheme) – but the expectation is that most mentees will be senior lecturers (as was the case with the 2023-24 cohort);
• may hold a T&R or a T&S contract – the scheme is intended to support career development on either pathway (the 2023-24 cohort comprised a fairly even mix of both);
• must hold a permanent or fixed-term academic contract within SEED;
• may perhaps already have a mentor within your department, but are interested in having a second mentor from any of the school’s departments;
• must be genuinely motivated to develop (one or more aspects of) your academic practice;
• must commit to participating in the workshops and other events that, along with meetings with your assigned mentor, is a key element of the programme. 

Participation commitment

As indicated in the last bullet above, a supplementary programme of development-focused events is a key part of the mid-career mentoring scheme, making it distinct from most other mentoring provision. It is important to note that participation in the programme of workshops is an expectation, and all mentees accepted onto the scheme should prioritise these events. To facilitate this prioritisation, the provisional dates of the workshops in 2024-25 are listed below (more details on the workshop topics will be provided at the information meeting on 16^th October). If you’re interested in the scheme, please check your availability on these dates and hold them in your diary.

In 2024-25, workshops and other cohort events are expected to take place on campus (all are in-person events) on the afternoons of the following dates. All dates fall on Wednesdays.

• 4^th December 2024 – 14.30-17.00
• 29^th January 2025 – 14.30-17.00
• 19^th February 2025 – 14.30-17.00
• 12^th March 2025 – 14.30-17.00
• 4^th June 2025 – 14.30-17.00
• 16^th July 2025 – 14.30-17.00 

(This is a provisional schedule that may change – if, for example, it transpires that one or more date(s) clashes with an important event in one or more departments.)

If you’re interested in the SEED mid-career mentoring scheme but can’t attend the initial meeting (which will be in-person only) please indicate this when completing the registration form https://forms.office.com/e/xGhxAU4uwR .

Best wishes,

Professor Linda Evans

Deputy Head of School of Environment, Education and Development

Professor Martin Evans

Vice-Dean and Head of School of Environment, Education and Development