How to Train Mentors to Support Your Apprentices

Employers often recognize the importance of combining training and mentorship.  But they don’t always have the knowledge or resources to train their journeypersons to be effective mentors.

Here are some helpful tips to create journeyperson mentors within your business.

1) Pick the Right Person

Being a good mentor goes beyond technical skills. You want to carefully consider the qualities of your journeypersons before selecting the right person for the job.

An effective journeyperson mentor should have:

• leadership skills
• a positive attitude
• communication skills
• the ability and patience to teach others
• an openness to work with younger generations
• time management skills 
• a willingness to commit to the mentorship process 

Consider the qualities of both the apprentice and mentor when pairing them together. Journeyperson mentors should have experience in the same trade and industry as the apprentice.

It may also be helpful to match apprentices with a journeyperson mentor who can relate to them on a more personal level (whenever possible). For example, matching female-identifying apprentices and mentors can provide a sense of belonging and support that a male-identifying mentor may not be able to offer. The journeyperson mentor can relate to the apprentice’s experience as a female in a male-dominated industry. They can offer personal insight and guidance to support the apprentice through their training. 

This may not always be possible, so it’s important that your journeyperson mentors receive the proper mentorship training to work with apprentices from all walks of life.

We’ve included a video called “SkillPlan’s 6 Steps to Mentoring – What Makes a Good Mentor?” in the resources of this section to help guide you in your choice of a mentor.

2) Provide Mentorship Training Before Matching with an Apprentice

Journeypersons are highly skilled in their trade, but they’re not trained teachers or mentors. It’s important that they have the tools they need to be an effective mentor. Your mentorship training should include

• effective mentoring practices
• communication skills
• how to provide constructive feedback
• mental health first aid [more info]
• business processes, procedures and policies
• conflict resolution
• unconscious bias*

Building a mentorship training program can be costly and time consuming. The Mentorship Matters program trains your experienced workers to be mentors and trainers who can deliver mentorship training to your future journeyperson mentors. If you don’t have trainers available, Mentorship Matters can deliver the mentorship training to your future mentors in person at your workplace or online.

Some employers also embed mentorship training in their apprenticeship training programs. When the apprentice completes training, they’ll have the skills required to mentor future apprentices. This can help you build a strong workforce of skilled journeyperson mentors who have the tools to train the next generation of workers. 

* Unconscious bias, also known as “implicit bias,” is an automatic belief or assumption about a person, group, event, etc. These biases are formed unconsciously and out of our control. They’re often influenced by societal stereotypes or your own personal beliefs. They may relate to a person’s race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Unconscious bias can impact decision making and our behaviour towards others. Click here to learn more about unconscious bias.

3) Create a Training Plan

Once you’ve matched your apprentice with a journeyperson mentor, you’ll want to build a training plan. Your training plan should begin with a mentoring agreement signed by the apprentice and journeyperson mentor. This should include:

• training objectives
• the importance of communication and confidentiality 
• responsibilities of the mentor and apprentice 
• frequency and format of meetings (in-person, remote, phone, etc.)

We’ve included a mentoring agreement template that you can tailor to the needs of your business in the resources of this section. 

A structured training plan monitors the apprentice’s skill development and progress. It identifies learning objectives and outcomes that align with the provincial training standards. Your training plan may include

• skills the apprentice must develop
•  it may be helpful to identify skills using the apprenticeship training standards or Red Seal occupational standards
• work tasks required to develop these skills
•  you may want to match the skills with specific job tasks (this can also be found in the training/occupational standards)
• a plan to monitor progress

The Skilled Trades Ontario (STO) website includes detailed information on the 144 skilled trades in Ontario including apprenticeship training and curriculum standards. Visit the Trades Information webpage to download the training standards and other helpful apprenticeship resources such as

• exam information and resources
• schedules of training 
• trade reports

If your apprentice is training in a Red Seal trade, visit the Red Seal website to download the Red Seal Occupational Standard (RSOS). The RSOS includes a full description of the skills and activities a worker must know to be successful on the Red Seal exam. The Red Seal website also provides helpful resources including

• essential skills for the trades 
• exam information and resources
• labour market information 

Tip - Both the STO and Red Seal websites are great resources to build your training plan! 

We’ve included a Mentoring Action Plan template that you can use to meet your business’ needs. It was developed by the Construction Owners Association of Alberta and can be found in the resources for this section. 

4) Train and Mentor Apprentices

Once the training plan is developed, review the plan with the apprentice and get started. You’ll want to monitor progress throughout training. There are 6 steps to mentoring an apprentice.

1. Identify the Purpose of the Lesson

• Explain the learning objective, including 
• the activity
• specific skills the apprentice will learn
• the learning outcomes.

2. Link the Lesson

• Help the apprentice make connections between the learning objective and skills of the trade. 
• Explain the relationship by referencing
• the apprenticeship training standards
• the Red Seal occupational standards 
• previous lessons or learning activities
• job tasks that use the skill.

3. Demonstrate the Skill

• Explain the steps involved with the skill and how to do it. 
• Demonstrate the skill while the apprentice observes.

4. Provide Opportunities to Practice

• Guide the apprentice through the lesson with support from the journeyperson mentor. 
• Allow the apprentice to practice the skill on their own while the journeyperson mentor supervises.
• When they’re ready, allow the apprentice to complete the activity alone (unsupervised). 
• Encourage the apprentice to ask questions.

5. Give Feedback

• Give regular feedback - tell the apprentice how they’re doing.  Feedback should be constructive and supportive. 
• Celebrate the apprentice’s successes. Tell the apprentice when they’re doing well. 
• Positive feedback and encouragement can help the apprentice build confidence.
• Be patient. Unnecessary pressure or harsh criticism can negatively affect the apprentice’s confidence and overall performance.

6. Assess Progress

• Refer to the Mentoring Action Plan to review the apprentice’s progress. 
• Discuss strengths and areas they can improve. 
• If they had difficulty with the activity, review the Plan to identify any skills gaps and focus areas. 
• Mark the skill as completed if the apprentice has successfully completed the lesson (and the journeyperson mentor is confident in their abilities).

We’ve included a video called “SkillPlan’s 6 Steps to Mentoring – The Six Steps?” in the resources of this section. This video will help your mentor learn how to guide an apprentice effectively.

5) Provide Processes and Tools to Evaluate Apprentice

It’s important to develop a process to evaluate apprentices. This can include

• targeted assignments
• performance evaluations
• self-assessments 
• check-in meetings

Here are some examples of how employers are evaluating their apprentices (taken from The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, Effective Journeyperson Mentoring on-the-Job: Tips, Strategies and Resources, 2013).

A) Assess apprentices’ skills through field assignments, scenarios and activities. This is an opportunity for apprentices to demonstrate their skills independently. Activities should link directly to learning objectives in their training plan. The journeyperson mentor assesses the apprentice and gives feedback. After the assignment, the apprentice completes a “retention test” to identify what they’ve learned and any skills gaps to focus on. 

B) Do quarterly evaluations with apprentices. The journeyperson mentor completes an evaluation form that lists skills from the Mentoring Action Plan. The journeyperson mentor notes if the skills “need improvement” or are “satisfactory”. The journeyperson mentor writes comments to explain their evaluation of each skill. They review the form with the apprentice and update the training plan.

C) Hold weekly meetings with mentors and apprentices. This is an opportunity to discuss training progress, areas for improvement and action items for the week. The employer gives the journeyperson mentor a “Mentoring Meeting Record” to measure progress and skill development, including

• a summary of the meeting (discussion topics, key points, etc.)
• skill development and activities/lessons completed that week
• action items for the following week
  
  

D) Use self-assessments. The journeyperson mentor and apprentice identify learning goals at the beginning of training. After a few months, the journeyperson mentor evaluates the apprentice and the apprentice completes a self-assessment. They journeyperson mentor and apprentice meet again to

• compare the evaluation and self-assessment to the original goals from the last meeting
• identify strengths and skills gaps
• set new training goals for the next 3-4 months

6) Provide Ongoing Support and Training

A successful apprenticeship training program is dependent on support from you, the employer. Check in with your journeyperson mentors on a regular basis to provide support and feedback. This is more than tracking the apprentices’ progress. You also want to evaluate the journeyperson’s abilities as an effective mentor. Provide feedback on what they’re doing well, and constructive feedback on what they can improve. Give them a safe, supportive space to express concerns about their apprentices or their abilities as a mentor. Provide resources and training to support the mentorship process. Options can include



• participating in orientation of new apprentices and mentors
• scheduling quarterly reviews / check-ins with journeyperson mentors
• providing ongoing mentorship training and professional development
• embedding mentorship training into technical training 
• encouraging feedback from journeyperson mentors on how you can better support them and their apprentices
• collecting feedback from apprentices
• offering employee recognition or incentives to journeyperson mentors who are leaders in the workplace
• holding employer-mentor meetings with journeypersons to discuss common skills gaps, success stories, ways to improve mentorship, etc. 
• connecting journeypersons and apprentices to English as a Second Language programs (ESL) 
• providing forms, templates and other learning materials in multiple formats (digital and paper)
• using an online forum, application or social media for mentors and apprentices to connect