Competency E3: Use Mentoring Techniques

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a mentor as: an experienced person who advises and helps somebody with less experience over a period of time. One of the expectations of being a journeyperson, in any trade, is to provide mentoring to apprentices, as well as to others who may wish to benefit from your area(s) of expertise. Canada’s Red Seal Occupational Standard (RSOS) for Plumber states “With experience, plumbers act as mentors and trainers to apprentices in the trade. They may also move into other positions such as instructors, inspectors, estimators, and project managers.” As well, it states “Plumbers also need good communication skills to communicate with co-workers, clients, architects, engineers and building officials.” Effective communication is at the core of each of these statements.  This section will focus on describing the techniques involved in mentoring apprentices in preparing them for transition to journeyperson.