Certificate in Mentoring

The Institute of Counselling was founded in 1985 as a Christian based, not for profit independent educational body. It is committed to promoting pastoral care throughout the services it provides.

The Aims of the Institute of Counselling are:

The Institute provides a wide range of counselling and related courses. Students enrol with assurance and confidence on our quality courses, which are fully backed by the experience and resources of the Institute of Counselling.

In its early years the Institute offered only courses in Clinical and Pastoral Counselling, within a pastoral context. Since 1985, over 18,000 students from the UK and overseas have enrolled on these courses.

In recent years, has also produced a selection of further courses which follow the clinical person-centred approach developed by Carl Rogers and others.

The Institute is committed to providing counselling skills training to all who will benefit from the courses. On this basis a non-discriminatory policy is operated with regard to students' background, culture, ethnic origin, gender, age or creed.

Certificate in Mentoring

This tutor supported distance learning course provides practical insights into the art of mentoring.

The aim of the course is to equip you with the knowledge and skills to mentor others. This is achieved through providing insight into the process of mentoring, and teaching the essential mentoring skills. Case studies, practical activities and assignments are included as key teaching tools.

Mentoring is associated with positive personal and professional growth, career outcomes and development. It is a highly personal relationship that is creative, dynamic and intentional. Specifically, mentoring is where a more experienced individual (mentor) contracts to offer support, knowledge, interest and time to a less experienced individual (mentee). By doing this, the mentor enhances the mentee’s personal and professional competency. The result for mentor and mentee is a greater sense of fulfillment, role definition and a more secure identity. This is beneficial to the individual, the organisation and the community. It can be seen that skilled mentoring can lead to tangible rewards in management development and practice.

The course is designed for:

• People who work with colleagues/clients, etc. whose lives would be enhanced by a special kind of relationship where objectivity, honesty and trustworthiness are crucial,
• People who are specifically involved in the training and management of others,
• People who want to develop and enhance their career in mentoring, or
• People who work in a caring/pastoral profession (social workers, nurses, teachers, ministers, etc).

This course is designed to be both relevant and practical.

Your course in mentoring includes the following topics:

1. Defining and describing the mentoring process
2. Mentoring in the corporate and professional world
3. Mentoring in the community
4. Essential mentor qualities
5. Essential skills in mentoring
6. Self-awareness: including demarking and defining the relationship
7. Issues of integrity: including, “what if things go wrong?”
8. Mentoring as a way of life

The course materials consist of 10 lessons, 5 tutor marked assignments and a textbook. This is supplemented with suggested background reading.

If you enrol on, and successfully complete the Coaching and Mentoring Certificate courses, you are eligible for the Institute’s Diploma in Coaching and Mentoring