Looking to improve your competencies? Join the Defence Team Mentoring Program (internal link) to connect with a Defence Team member who can broaden your professional perspective, share their experiences, and help you develop new skills.

“The mentoring program at DND provided me with an excellent opportunity. I was matched up with an exceptional mentor that saw more talent in myself than I could, and helped guide me. It has not only paid great dividends in my career and helping me build my key leadership qualities, but also expanded me as a human being.”  – A. Lambert, CMP

To promote the renewed program, Defence Team members are encouraged to take the +PlusOne Mentoring Challenge:

• Register for the Defence Team Mentoring Program;
• Commit to at least one mentoring relationship as a mentor or mentee;
• Commit to the mentoring experience for one year;
• Challenge one employee or colleague to do the same.

The renewed program is designed to strengthen employee connections and learning opportunities with five types of mentoring. There is traditional mentoring, which matches a junior employee with a more senior colleague to share knowledge and advice. Peer mentoring connects at-level colleagues to share experiences, and community specific mentoring is available for those working in the engineering, finance, intelligence, as well as, procurement and material management fields. Longstanding employees can receive advice on using digital GCTools platforms from more tech-savvy colleagues through reverse mentoring. Employees can also opt to practice their second language skills in English or French through official languages mentoring.

Program participants can request to be matched to a member of an employment equity group, or with a trained Positive Space Ambassador. Positive Space is an initiative that fosters the creation of a safe and inclusive work environment for everyone, independent of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

“We hear wonderful things about the benefits from both mentors and mentees,” says Helen Bates, Program Advisor. “Mentoring gives you the opportunity to examine case studies and practice your skills together, to share experiences, and to have rich discussions. It is a great professional development tool that can be included in your Learning and Development Plan or Personal Evaluation Review that shouldn’t be overlooked.”

Visit the Defence Team Mentoring Program intranet page to learn more and to register.