ECA Institute Mentoring Program: A Comprehensive Plan for Success

This report outlines a comprehensive plan to implement a mentoring program at ECA Institute in Sydney. The plan begins with a need assessment, emphasizing the importance of mentorship in providing feedback, improving skills, and guiding career decisions. Key stakeholders, including teaching faculty, board members, and students, are identified, and a communication process is proposed to ensure effective program awareness. The program's structure focuses on enhancing the professional characteristics of new graduates, particularly those from diverse cultural backgrounds. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals are established, including attracting more students and increasing the institute's revenue. The mentoring process involves weekly sessions covering topics such as self-introduction, interpersonal communication, time management, project handling, and work-life balance. The report also includes an action plan for forming an advisory committee and a proposed budget for the program's implementation. The expected outcome is improved student confidence, enhanced career readiness, and increased recognition for ECA Institute.

Running head: Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA
Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA 1
Table of Contents
1. Introduction:...........................................................................................................................2
2. Stage 1: Pre-planning.............................................................................................................2
2.1 Need assessment...............................................................................................................2
3. Pre-program development:.....................................................................................................3
3.1 Stakeholder engagement:.................................................................................................3
3.2 Communication process:..................................................................................................3
4. Structure of the mentoring program:......................................................................................4
4.1 Purpose of the program:...................................................................................................4
4.2 Type of mentee:................................................................................................................4
4.2 Need of the mentoring program:......................................................................................5
4.3 Goal of the program:........................................................................................................6
4.4 Mentoring, modelling and structure of the program:.......................................................7
4.5 The mentoring plan diagram:...........................................................................................8
5. Action plan to form an advisory committee:..........................................................................9
6. Selection of the form of the plan:...........................................................................................9
7. A proposed budget:..............................................................................................................10
8. Expected outcome of the mentoring plan:...........................................................................11
Reference list:...........................................................................................................................12

Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA 2

Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA 3
1. Introduction:
The ECA institute in Sydney aims at developing and preparing the students to enter
and succeed in the professional life. The students in this institute learn to be self-directed as
an individual professional and become confident enough to engage and participate in
different professional forums (ECA.edu.au 2019). In order to enhance the ability of the
students, a mentoring program shall be fruitful. The aim of this planning is to plan and
implement and design a mentoring program. As a part of the consulting design team, this
mentoring plan would help the new graduates who have commenced their job in ECA. This
proposal includes the need assessment, the program development, structuring the mentoring
program along with an action plan and a proposed budget required for the success of the plan.
2. Stage 1: Pre-planning
2.1 Need assessment
Reading Curtin et al. (2016), it can be said that mentorship provides important
feedback to the students about their performance, on improving skills, on the need of
pragmatic information and such areas in the preparatory stage when one makes the decision
of the career choice during their academic tenure. According to the Social Cognitive Career
Theory, mentoring can be of different forms like instrumental or psychological depending on
the individual who will be mentored. However, it is true that the mentoring process helps an
individual to decide on their career choice. As one of the goals of the ECA, correct career
decision will help the student to get into the right profession. As a result of which, the
institute will gain more recognition in its field and can be able to attract more students in
future. Thus, the mentoring plan would be beneficial for the institute in terms of its
recognition as well as gaining more number of students for every session.

Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA 4
3. Pre-program development:
3.1 Stakeholder engagement:
The stakeholders who shall be involved in this mentoring plan are:
i. The teaching faculty: In the first stage of mentoring program, it is expected that the
members in the existing teaching faculty would be the primary stakeholder responsible for
mentoring the students in ECA. Communicating the usefulness and the effectiveness of the
plan to this teaching faculty would convince them to act as a mentor (Fleming et al. 2015).
ii. The Board Members: The owners, trusty and the board members of the institute are
another set of stakeholders because the mentoring program would require new set up and a
newly designed plan which would require the intervention of the members from the higher
authority.
iii. The Students: The students who will be the mentees fall under the most important group
of stakeholder. These students will be given the adequate training and mentorship that is the
main purpose of this program.
3.2 Communication process:
The success of this plan depends on how well we communicate the program. As the
main target group of people are the students themselves, so primarily they should be
communicated. In order to make sure that the news of the new program reaches out to the
student, the message has to be sent directly to them. For this, the program co-ordinator can be
the main sender of the message. Each of the teachers, of the various programs taught in the
institute, can be told to disseminate the information to the students. Following this, pamphlets
can be distributed among the students and posters about the program can be posted in the
entire campus of the institute.

Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA 5
For communicating about the program to the higher authority of the institute, formal
communication medium needs to be taken that can be done by official mails. However, the
enrolment of the mentoring program is entirely an official process that would require
registration of the candidate in the particular program. Thus, the communication part can also
be included as a promotional content in the student portals of the students of ECA. This
communication process can begin 45-60 days before the commencing of the program. This
duration would be sufficient to get the attention of the required people involved in the
program.
4. Structure of the mentoring program:
4.1 Purpose of the program:
The purpose of the program is to introduce a mentoring program for the new
graduates who have commenced their job in ECA. This program would act as an extra
initiative made by the institute where they would help the graduate to nourish their individual
characteristics and can make them better and they would be ready to work for their respective
industries. The success of this program would result in better recognition of the institute itself
among the employer and at the same time, can also gain the confidence of the students of the
institute. Thus, ECA would have a better future with more profitable business scope.
4.2 Type of mentee:
The students working in ECA are the target group of people or the mentee of the
program. As it has been found that the age group of these students is between 20 and 30 years
and they come from various academic and cultural backgrounds. However, the major focus
has to be given on the students from other cultures who find difficulties which their language
or communicating with native people (Marginson 2015). It is very challenging for non-native

Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA 6
people to get good job because of their inter-personal skills. Thus, this program would be
beneficial for this group and they are the primary target group of mentee.
Apart from this, it has also been found that the number of foreign students is
increasing from time to time. In fact, there are people who are not taking any specific course
as a formal education but they are enrolling themselves in some professional course in order
to understand the need of the industry and get themselves ready to work effectively and
survive in the long run. The proposed mentoring program would be ideal for this group of
people as the objective of this program is to provide training that would significantly add to
their working procedure.
Again, the group of mentee can also include the set of people who are already
working in some industrial fields and want to increase their proficiency in that particular
field. In order to get them polished and improve their own specific set of skills, this program
would be helpful.
4.2 Need of the mentoring program:
As mentioned previously, the aim of the program is to enhance the characteristics of
the students and to make them more professional to work in their respective industrial fields.
The mentioned target group that is, those who are different in culture and are non-native, are
likely to face difficulties in their professional career if they are not perfectly groomed to
match with the need of the industry partners (Marginson 2015). In order to increase the
confidence among the students and to make them ready for their professional life, this special
mentoring program would be necessary as well as beneficial.

Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA 7
4.3 Goal of the program:
The goal of the program is to create awareness on the necessity of such mentoring in
order to develop the personality of a person and make them perfect to work for the particular
industry where they want to work (Harmon 2015). Other specific goals are:
Goal 1: To attract more students in the program
Specific To target the existing students in ECA and also students from outside the institute.
Measurable The increased number of participants would help to understand the success rate of the
program.
Achievable With proper promotional techniques and clear communication to explain the need of the
program, the goal can be achieved.
Reliable ECA is a renowned institute and students have been relying on the teachings for their
professional career and thus, the probability of the success of the program is high.
Time bound The duration of the mentioning program would be 4 weeks long. 2 hours session will be
held in 4 days a week.
Goal 2: To increase the revenue of the institute by 2%.
Specific A minimum fee will be charged on the mentees for the course or the program that would
directly go into the revenue of the institute and as a result, the revenue of the institute is
likely to increase as well.
Measurable The increased percentage of revenue after 6 months or 1 year will be able to give a clear
idea on the profitability margin of the program.
Achievable More people are like to join the course because of the effectiveness of the course as it will
help them to be industry ready and will also build up enough confidence within them. Thus,
the success of the program can be achieved.
Reliable The mentors of ECA are already very professional and keep the requisite knowledge to
provide to the students. Therefore, the plan is absolutely reliable and can be successful as
well.
Time bound The outcome or the profitability of the program can be known only after a quarter that is
after 6 months or 1 year.
4.4 Mentoring, modelling and structure of the program:
In the beginning of the program, the existing teachers of ECA would be the ones who
would be acting as the mentor of the student. The teachers in this institute are already very
professional, skilled and keep the requisite knowledge to make the students face the industrial
pressure when they work in practical fields (Rhoades and Smart 2018). Thus, the mentoring

Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA 8
process would help them to understand the important factors that would help them to become
industry ready and how to cope with the dynamic nature of the industry that requires one to
be ready to face any kind of challenge at any point of time.

Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA 9
4.5 The mentoring plan diagram:
The mentoring process would be a 2 hour long session, 4 days a week and it will be a
4 week program. As mentioned before, this program will focus on the self-improvement and
development and would not focus on the theoretical learning. The proposed 2 hour plan can
be given as bellow for the 4 weeks.
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Day 1 Introduction session
and how to introduce
yourself to the
employer
Ways to talk to the
colleagues from
different cultural
background
Tips for working on
professional
projects and
presentation
How to portray
yourself to show
you are ready for
promotion
Day 2 The do’s and don’ts in
a job interview
How to keep a
balance in work
culture
Ways to handle
emergency
situations
To take extra
initiative at work
Day 3 Lesson of inter-
personal
communication
Time management
skills
How to not buckle
up in work pressure
To act as a mentor
for new joiners
Day 4 Lesson of self-
grooming and self-
representation
Lesson on work-life
balance
How to handle
crisis at work
Overall recap of the
session.

Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA 10
5. Action plan to form an advisory committee:
Setting up of this program would require good time like between 45-60 days as it
needs to attract the particular set of people and at the same time it is important to convince
the existing stakeholders in the organisation. The action plan can be given as below:
Things to do 1-15 days 16-30 days 31-45 days 45-60 days
Understanding the target group
of people
Setting a promotional plan for
the target group
Disseminating the information
of the importance of the
program
Registration of the students
Taking a session
Beginning of the session
6. Selection of the form of the plan:
The first form of program would focus on improving the inter-personal skills of the
mentees. These include, their body language, the way of speaking, representing themselves in
front of others while being at work. As identified that the students from the other cultural
background face these kinds of issues, thus plan would mainly focus on improving the skills
sets that would help these people to interact with the native people. The form of the plan
would be focused more on the communication part as this program is not build up on the
theoretical perspective but mostly on the practical implication.
7. A proposed budget:
The beginning of the program would require setting up a classroom for the students
and the necessary things required for the learning procedure. However, it can be added here
that the fee collected from the mentees would eventually cover up this budget that would be
required for the program. A proposed budget can be showed here.
Particulars Probable cost in AUD

Plan and implement a mentoring program at ECA 11
Fee of the mentor or the program
co-ordinator
2000
Marketing and co-ordinating cost 1000
Administrative cost 500
Activity supplies 350
Stationaries including files, pens
and other things
350
Staffs 750
Others 300
Total 5,250
It has to be included here that since the program would be carried on in the existing
campus of ECA, thus there would not be any kind of fee required for the space or the
classroom and that the above mentioned particulars are the only probable costs that would be
required for this proposed program (Lau et al. 2016). Moreover, the program co-ordinators or
the mentors also receive salary and they are to be paid a bit extra for extra work that they
have to do for this program.
8. Expected outcome of the mentoring plan:
It is expected that this mentoring plan would be successful for both the mentees and
the institute as well. The main goals and objectives of the program would be useful to attract
the desired group of people who wanted to improve their skill sets and make themselves
ready for the industrial challenges in their practical fields. At the same time, the success rate
of the program would eventually help to create a renowned name of the institute in the area
where this institute operates. The fee collected from the mentees would add up to the revenue
of the institute. Most importantly, this institute would gain a positive image among the
recruiters and thus, the likelihood of the expansion of the institute and attracting more