Mentorship Program
For mentees
As a mentee, the success of your learning rests with you. You are responsible for identifying the skills and competencies you wish to gain and for taking the initiative to ask for help or guidance from your mentor to achieve your goals. Your responsibilities include exploring and absorbing the mentor’s knowledge and then demonstrating what you have learned. AIRAH will help to facilitate this by providing mentorship resources that will assist you with preparing for your first meeting and setting goals.
Being accepted through the application process is a great achievement, but with this comes an expectation of time commitment and responsibility to the program. We recommend a minimum time requirement of one hour per quarter, with either a face-to-face (if in the same state/territory) or online virtual meeting. This is negotiable between you and your mentor. Both of you need to be communicative and happy to dedicated time in participating in the program.
As a mentee, you are in the privileged position of having access to an experienced industry leader who is freely giving their time to help you develop in your career. As such, it is important that you treat this relationship as a two-way learning experience and look for opportunities to give back to your mentor by sharing any information that you think might be valuable.
Once assigned to each other and agreed upon, the mentor and mentee will be required to sign a contract committing to one year of mentoring. AIRAH will maintain a confidential record of mentors and mentees and issue a survey at the six- and 12-month mark to gather feedback and review the program. The mentor is responsible for advising the acceptance and providing a copy of the agreement once signed by both parties.
Why be a mentee?
There are many benefits of being a mentee, including:
- An opportunity to develop new skills and expertise
- Access to independent and objective perspectives
- A way to enhance your confidence in dealing with senior industry leaders
- Networking opportunities
- A chance to set goals and strive toward them, with accountability for the success of the relationship
- Clarification and enhancement of career direction and advancement
- Learning from your mentor's experience with proven systems and solutions
- Earning continuing professional development (CPD) hours for meeting with your mentor
Throughout your working life, undertaking CPD is an important way to expand your knowledge, maintain up-to-date technical skills, and progress your HVAC&R building services career. Each one-hour meeting enables the mentee to log one hour of CPD under the "leadership positions and professional participation activities" – one of the seven major types of CPD activities AIRAH recognises.
By participating as a mentee, you'll also be contributing to broader improvements for the HVAC&R industry by:
- Fostering greater communication and collaboration
- Sharing and leveraging strategic knowledge and skills throughout the sector
- Promoting the opportunities and benefits of working in HVAC&R
- Investing in the future of the industry
Mentee criteria
Mentees must:
- Be a financial, fee paying AIRAH member
>> Not an AIRAH member yet? Become one today via airah.org.au/join
- Reside in Australia or New Zealand
- Agree to the AIRAH Code of Professional and Ethical Conduct
- Commit to at least one hour per quarter to meet with your mentor over a one-year period
- Take responsibility to identify the skills and competencies you wish to gain and assume the initiative to ask for the help or guidance from your mentor to achieve your goals
- Take the time to prepare for your meetings
- Complete a six- and 12-month survey
More information
View information about mentor requirements here.
We invite you to read view our resources for mentors/mentees and through our frequently asked questions about the AIRAH Mentorship Program.
For additional assistance, please email [email protected].
How to apply
Interested in getting matched with a mentor? Mentee applications are now open!
- Sign in to your AIRAH member account.
- View our mentors. You will be asked to indicate three preferred matches when submitting your application.
- Complete the online application form.
If you are having trouble with the online form, you may complete the PDF and submit it to [email protected]