Mentoring tertiary students from a secondary school incubator programme focusing on health careers

Abstract

Purpose Developing the health workforce is an ongoing concern, especially in New Zealand, where Māori and Pasifika populations are under-represented. Programme Incubator (PI) was developed by a health provider to raise awareness of careers in the health sector. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study undertaken in a tertiary institution which involved tracking and mentoring students who had been engaged in PI, and mentoring them through their tertiary studies. Design/methodology/approach In total, 40 students (n=40) were recruited into the four year study, which involved a survey and participating in focus groups. Findings PI was found to be an effective initiative of encouraging secondary students to enter a career in health, but more work is needed to facilitate students’ choice of tertiary provider and academic programme. Within the tertiary sector, mentoring was found to be lacking. Originality/value Group mentoring and peer mentoring are introduced to mitigate these concerns and provide students with the mentoring support they require.

The Role of Career Development Tools in Enhancing Proactive Behavior

“…In carrying out the role, human resource managers will often collaborate and liaise with other department heads to set up a master career plan in order to achieve the following aims: retain top talent, enhance engagement and productivity, reinforce succession planning, generate knowledge transfer and retention, fill internal skill and role gaps, as well as build positive employer branding (Insala, 2017). Implementation of the career plan at organizational and departmental levels may strongly motivate employees to maintaining and supporting their organizational strategy and goals in an era of global economy (Crawford, Monson & Searle, 2016;Clarke, 2017).…”