About the Kaleidoscope Mentoring Program
Newcomers (migrants and refugees) bring talent, innovation and international expertise to Western Australia, but they need information and networks to succeed. The Kaleidoscope Mentoring Program (KMP) aims to help skilled newcomer professionals improve their employment potential by matching them with mentors from their industry or occupation.
Mentors help guide newcomers on a pathway to find employment within their industry. This benefits both the newcomers and employers in Western Australia by sharing new ideas and boosting business development and cultural diversity in both the workplace and the community.
A growing number of Employer Partners are supporting the program supporting/nominating their employees to become mentors in the program. At the same time, interested professionals are also individually joining the program as mentors.
KMP Objectives
Mentors work with their mentees to help them build an understanding of:
- Australian workplace culture
- Give an insight to mentee’s profession/industry
- occupationally specific professional networks to assist them to achieve their career goals.
In return, the mentors benefit by enhancing their leadership, coaching and cultural competency skills while working with a newcomer mentee.
However, the mentor’s role is NOT to find you a job the mentee.
Mentoring Cycle
KMP program runs for three (3) months during which the mentors and the mentee work together for a minimum of 18 hours or approximately 1.5 hours each week. Connections can be through:
- face-to-face meetings
- online e.g. email, chat applications, Skype, etc
- phone conversations
- job shadowing
- networking at events.
In addition, the mentors and the mentees are expected to attend the following sessions to reap the maximum benefit out of this program.
- Mentor/Mentee Orientation Session (about 2 hours)
- Cultural Competency Session (about 2 hours)
- Graduation Ceremony (about 2 hours)
The mentees will need to put in another 10 hours (approx.) preparing and arranging their meetings and to complete the logs of their meetings.
Our Mentoring Program flyer and Infographic provides an overview of the process.
KMP 2019 Cycle 2 Timeline
We are currently working on our next mentoring cycle as per the following timeline:
- 30 May 2019: Applications Open
- 30 Jun 2019: Mentor and Mentee Applications closes
- 31 Jul 2019: Communicate the matches for confirmation from the mentees/mentors.
- 05 Aug 2019: Confirm all mentee-mentor matches
- 19 Aug 2019: KMP 2019 Cycle 2 starts
- 10 Nov 2019: KMP 2019 Cycle 2 closes
- 14 Nov 2019: Graduation Ceremony
Our 2019 Intake 2 mentoring cycle full calendar provides the schedule of our planned activities, events and key dates.
Become a KMP Mentor
We are continuously recruiting mentors whom we will match with mentees in our upcoming mentee intake.
- Why you should become a mentor and your Eligibility Criteria?
- Frequently asked questions on becoming a mentor
- You can review the questions from the Mentor Application here before applying.
Become a KMP Mentee
You will need to submit your application online and meet the eligibility criteria for the program to join as a mentee.
- Why you should become a mentee and your Eligibility Criteria?
- Frequently asked questions on becoming a mentee
- You can review the questions asked in the Mentee application Part-1 & Part-2 before applying.
Please note: The mentor’s role is NOT to find you a job the mentee.
The Kaleidoscope Mentoring Program is being implemented under a partnership between the City of Stirling, the City of Canning and Metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services and the Western Australian Government. The Program has been created in consultation with the Toronto Regional Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC). Their successful TRIEC Mentoring Partnership program is the model for mentoring programs across Canada and internationally.