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The purpose of this study is to contribute to the existing literature on the importance of mentorship in academia, particularly in higher education. Specifically, this study aims to address the research gap related to academic mentorship from a gendered perspective. The Productive Mentoring Framework and relational–cultural theory theoretically support this study.

In this qualitative descriptive study, purposive sampling was used to recruit 19 participants for semi-structured interviews and a focus group. Two research questions guided this study: (1) How do individuals who identify as women describe the importance of mentorship in academia? (2) How do individuals who identify as women describe mentorship in academia from a gendered perspective? Using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis, a total of six themes emerged, with three themes identified for each of the two research questions from the data: (a) guidance and support, (b) personal and professional development, (c) inclusive and accountable relationships, (d) empathetic and supportive mentorship, (e) interpersonal connectivity and (f) gender empowerment and advocacy.

The research findings suggest that the participants held perceptions of gender disparity within academia. Additionally, empowering interpersonal relationships with other women and supportive environments were crucial in overcoming challenges and developing personally and professionally in higher education institutions. Future research is recommended to explore the perspectives of women supporting women and the perception of gender disparity in academia.

While successfully addressing the research questions, this study has limitations. One limitation was that this study had a relatively small sample size of participants who identified as women, which limited the focus of this research. Another limitation was that interview and focus group participants did not mention working with mentors who fall outside the traditional binary of male and female. Finally, limitations can occur in qualitative research as there is potential bias in the data analysis process. However, member-checking and codebook verification were utilized to minimize this constraint.

There are practical implications from the research for mentoring practices in academia. Since the results indicated benefits to women, institutions could prioritize mentoring programs, especially pairing same-gender mentors and mentees. This helps new employees navigate academia. Mentoring fosters interpersonal connectivity, improving academic culture. By supporting mentoring relationships and professional friendships, leaders positively impact dynamics within institutions. Gender disparities and systemic barriers call for advocacy within higher education. Mentor training programs should address these issues, providing a platform for solutions. Administrators' awareness may support efforts to improve equity.

The study is original in its focus on academic mentorship from a gendered perspective, as described by women in academia, notably higher education.

In this study, students’ perceptions of the effective practices of their research mentors were examined. The research mentors implemented the practices informed by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) mentorship competencies to mentor underrepresented students in engineering education research in a virtual environment.

This research experience for undergraduates (REU) program, situated in the United States of America, consisted of undergraduate students (i.e. mentees), graduate students and faculty mentors who all had at least one underrepresented identity in engineering (i.e. Black, Latiné/x, and/or women). Using qualitative methods, we used data from reflection surveys and follow-up interviews with REU mentees to understand the outcomes of the mentorship strategies employed by the mentors in the program. The data were analyzed thematically using CIMER model constructs and social capital theory as guiding frameworks.

The results indicated the identified strategies students perceived as the most impactful for mentorship throughout the program. Students in the REU gained knowledge on how to activate social capital in mentorship relationships and how to better mentor others.

The findings provide insight on how to operationalize the CIMER mentorship competencies to skillfully mentor underrepresented students in engineering. Given the size of the REU and the nature of qualitative research, the sample size was limited.

The results help inform mentorship practices for underrepresented individuals in engineering education and the workforce. Further, they add to the practical knowledge of implementing CIMER best practices virtually, at a time when the world has transitioned to more hybrid and virtual working and learning environments.

This study identifies impactful strategies for operationalizing mentorship strategies informed by theory- and evidence-based CIMER mentorship competencies. In addition, this study extends knowledge about how to implement mentoring best practices and engage mentorship in a virtual environment.

The paucity of artisans in some construction trades and the transitioning of the experience of the few for sustainability calls for concern. Mentorship programmes offer a promising mechanism to support construction artisans through those transitions. Mentorship may enhance artisan decent work and economic growth, like increased income for artisans. This is part of Sustainable Development Goal 8 (Goal 8). Hence, this study aims to investigate issues hindering construction artisan skills growth and suggest measures to improve construction artisan skills through mentorship mechanisms to achieve Goal 8.

The study adopted a qualitative approach and collected data via oral interviews with knowledgeable participants. The participants were consultant experts in mentorship and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) matters, construction organisation management staffers and construction artisans in the Nigerian construction industry. The study covered Lagos and Abuja and achieved saturation at the 30th interviewee. Also, the research utilised a thematic method to analyse the collated data.

Enhanced knowledge sharing accelerates junior artisans’ learning skills quickly, improving artisans’ performance, ensuring sustainability of the skills learned (knowledge retention), encouraging collaboration, building the next generation of leaders and transitioning of experience to mentees emerged as mentorship’s role in developing construction artisans’ skills. Findings show that mentorship mechanisms to develop construction artisan skills face encumbrances. The perceived 32 encumbrances were re-clustered into mentee, mentor and government-related encumbrances. Also, achieving Goal 8 regarding construction artisans may be threatened if these issues are not checked. Thus, the study recommended measures improving construction artisan skills through mentorship mechanisms to achieve Goal 8.

Identifying the major encumbrances facing construction artisan skills improvement through mentorship would be useful to advocate measures to improve construction artisan’s skills to achieve Goal 8.

As participation in higher education widens with concomitant increases in the number and diversity of commencing students, so does the need for programs that will support their transition and retention. In response to this need, a growing awareness of the value of mentorship in Australian universities has resulted in the introduction of peer mentoring programs for students in many institutions. Mentorship, however, can take many different forms. This chapter reports on a model of academic (faculty) mentorship for commencing science students belonging to a range of defined disadvantaged groups. The program was initially funded by an internal grant, with voluntary participation by eligible students. At the end of the first semester, participants overwhelmingly endorsed the program as having enhanced their transition experience and improved their prospects for academic progress and retention. Despite reduced funding, the program was retained over two subsequent years with slight modifications based on student feedback, together with consideration of its most effective elements. The success of this academic mentorship program demonstrates the potential value of such approaches in the university retention and success of disadvantaged students.

This study aims to examine the relationship between mentorship, innovation and entrepreneurship performance in Africa’s largest economy. This study argues that mentorship and innovation play significant roles in driving entrepreneurship performance in the country. It explores the impact of mentorship on entrepreneurial development, including the transmission of knowledge, skills and networks.

This study analyzes the role of innovation in fostering entrepreneurial growth and competitiveness, particularly in the context of Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy. The authors engaged data obtained from the Youth Enterprise with Innovation (2019) and made use of the propensity score matching.

The findings suggest that effective mentorship programs and innovative approaches can enhance entrepreneurial performance, promote economic growth and contribute to sustainable development in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy.

The literature on entrepreneurship in Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, has mainly focused on factors such as access to finance, the business environment and government policies, with limited research on the role of mentorship and innovation in entrepreneurship performance. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on entrepreneurship in Nigeria, particularly on the role of mentorship and innovation in entrepreneurship performance.

In line with the expansion of Kenya's vocational education sector, the Government of Kenya has recruited additional technical, vocational education and training (TVET) teachers. It is expected that existing TVET teachers will mentor the new teachers. However, teacher mentorship practices in Kenya's TVET sector are under researched, and it remains unclear what mentorship practices exist and how effective the practices are. This study therefore sought to investigate TVET teacher mentoring practices in Kenya and identify opportunities for ensuring effective and sustainable TVET teacher mentoring.

The study adopted a concurrent mixed-methods approach, involving a questionnaire survey (170 participants) and semi-structured interviews (16 participants). Participants were drawn from six TVET institutes in Kenya's Nairobi Metropolitan Area. Thematic analysis of interview data was combined with descriptive and inferential analysis of the survey data to arrive at a combined set of findings.

The analysis of the data revealed that while TVET teachers value mentoring, mentoring practices are limited to basic introductions and incidental supportive dialogue between teachers. Moreover, guidelines to structure and guide mentoring are yet to be developed. New teachers are therefore not adequately mentored. It is recommended that administrators and teachers receive training on the use of effective mentoring practices and a policy framework to guide teacher mentorship be developed.

The study contributes to the understanding of TVET teacher mentoring in Kenya and identifies much needed interventions for ensuring effective mentoring of new TVET teachers.

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, this paper documents an analysis of mentorship models within the profession of nursing from the 1940s onward. From this analysis, the author was able to categorize the evolution of mentorship models within nursing. Second, this paper identifies four specific contemporary challenges within nursing which relate directly to mentorship. Last, this paper attempts to place a nursing student peer mentorship model in context to best understand how it can benefit the profession of nursing and help address the four identified contemporary challenges within nursing.

The theoretical, philosophical, and research roots that have shaped and informed mentorship models in nursing are examined. The strengths and limitations of nursing mentorship models are analyzed in relation to contemporary challenges in nursing education and practice with a focus on undergraduate peer mentorship. This was achieved through a comprehensive literature review that examined mentorship in nursing from approximately 1940 to the present.

Since Nightingale’s time, five specific mentoring models have been created and adapted within the nursing profession. The five mentorship models identified within this paper are most prevalent within current and previous nursing mentorship literature and demonstrate how models within nursing have evolved from those positing a relatively paternalistic relationship to those favoring more collaborative and reciprocal relations between mentor and mentee. Further, it is argued in this paper that a nursing student peer mentorship model can assist in addressing four challenges which currently face the profession of nursing. These four challenges (which are prevalent in nursing literature) are mentoring as a professional responsibility, projected nursing shortages, communication in nursing, and the development of critical thinking skills.

A limitation of this paper includes the fact that, despite the many challenges facing the profession of nursing today, this paper focuses on only four identified challenges. As it is impossible for one paper to address all of the contemporary challenges which face nursing today, as articulated below, this paper addresses four identified challenges because they relate to mentorship, nursing education, and nursing practice.

Providing opportunities for nursing students to participate in a peer mentoring relationship assists future nurses and the profession as a whole by generating tangible benefits. These benefits include an exposure to theories and models of mentorship and skills to help them fulfill their future professional responsibility of mentoring, development of relationships and skills that can increase both nurse and student retention, and improved communication and critical thinking skills. Last, this study can help nursing schools to identify and work with theories and models of mentorship that will improve their ability to stimulate critical thinking among their students.

This paper fills a gap in the literature by providing an analysis of the theoretical, philosophical, and research roots that have shaped and informed mentorship models in nursing from the 1940s onward. This analysis suggests that student peer mentorship may be the most effective model to address these four challenges in nursing: mentoring as a professional responsibility, projected nursing shortages, communication in nursing, and the development of critical thinking skills. This paper has the potential to make a timely contribution to the global debate regarding mentoring across the healthcare professions.

Discusses the use and development of mentorship as a policy mechanism designed to promote the career development and advancement of women in the context of educational administration in government schools in Australia. The reason mentorship is the particular factor which has been identified to assist women educators′ careers here is that over the last decade there has been a general consensus by researchers in both academic and managerial circles that mentorship is a significant career tool, and a prerequisite for career success for both males and females. Access to a mentor, an older and more experienced career professional who is able to use his or her influence and power in assisting a young and up‐and‐coming protégé, has been closely associated with career advancement. Because women experience difficulties in securing traditional mentoring relationships, it is argued here that a mentorship policy will positively influence the career prospects of women educators by enabling them to be part of the power structures in educational administration.

This paper aims to present a literature review of studies of mentorship programs in the manufacturing industry so as to lay a theoretical basis for learning at work.

A literature review with focus on mentorship programs in the manufacturing industry was used. A search for relevant peer-reviewed articles, in four databases, rendered 315 hits, but only one article dealt with mentorship programs in an industry similar to the manufacturing industry. Thus, it is concluded that there is a lack of research on this area. The selection criteria were broadened so as to include 16 articles on mentorship programs for learning at work.

Three dominant areas emerged from this review: definitions of mentorship, characteristics of a good mentor and mentorship program structures. The establishment of a mentorship program requires a clear purpose; contextual knowledge; and adaption to the profession, the organization and to individual needs. In addition to their findings, the authors discuss relationships in mentoring programs, what can be understood by “reading between the lines” and the ongoing digitalization of mentorship programs.

Mentorship has proven itself to be a superior way to learn on the job. This paper provides practical information about establishing mentorship programs in the manufacturing industry, with a particular focus on the moulding industry.

This study examined the effects of gender and pandemic concerns on mentorship seeking behavior during the pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and its relationship to self-efficacy.

This study analyzes the data collected from 253 academics in a quantitative survey administered online.

Women and those with higher levels of concern about the COVID-19 pandemic were more likely to seek mentorship. During this time of uncertainty role modeling was sought more than career support and psychosocial support. All three functions of mentorship seeking were positively associated with higher levels of self-efficacy.

The present study finds that individuals turn to mentors when they are concerned about macro-level events (e.g. a global pandemic). Additionally, individuals who self-identify as women sought mentorship to a greater extent than men. In this way, it is not only the situation that matters (like women having fewer resources and more demands than men) but also the perception of a situation (like how concerned individuals were about the COVID-19 pandemic). Additionally, this paper helps to further develop the understanding of the mentorship function of role modeling.

Organizations and mentors ought to be cognizant of role modeling during times of crisis, especially for women, this may be counterintuitive to the inclination to provide career and psychosocial support for mentees.

This study examines the gendered implications for mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study specifically examines mentorship seeking behavior and its influence on self-efficacy during uncertain times.