Adina Mardenborough is a facilitator for the mentor training program at H-CAP and has been a wellness coach for the past 22 years. Through her work as a wellness coach, Mardenborough started providing mental health and mentor trainings after being asked by various clients to lead them. Since then, she has expanded her practice to include mentor training and aid in the development of mentors in their fields.
Mentors are an integral part of an apprentice's journey in learning a new trade. By passing down their knowledge and experience, mentors have an invaluable impact on apprentices’ skill development. In order to do so, mentors must know how to motivate and effectively communicate with their apprentices which is where mentor trainers step in.
“We’re working with the mentors who’ve been chosen for the apprentices coming in and getting them to be the best mentors that they can. We’re training them in communications skills and cultural humility,” said Mardenborough, “Each of the professions has their own standards with what they’re working within the apprenticeship programs. We make sure everyone’s onboard and make sure that these processes work consistently with every mentor working with an apprentice.”
Mentorship training programs also work with apprentices to receive feedback on the effectiveness of their curriculums. The goals of the training programs are working to improve the training manuals by incorporating learning styles and other new ways to deliver information to help trainers become better.
“It’s not ‘you need to do this or you need to do that,’ it’s giving mentors the space to say ‘this is my learning style but I know that my apprentice is not going to have the same learning style. So I'm learning to become proficient in things that are not comfortable for me.’ It’s working through our discomfort for other people to succeed’,” said Mardenborough.
Apprenticeships have proven to reduce turnover rates in healthcare and Mardenborough’s goal as a facilitator is to aid in training mentors to create an environment for apprentices to enjoy being in healthcare. Employers also have the opportunity to create important relationships with apprentices by ensuring that their success is valuable to both of them and not just one party.
“It’s a win-win and we’re seeing that,” said Mardenborough.
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