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9 January 2020    |    General

Linda Wins Outstanding Practices in Staff Development and Training Award

Linda Watson from Kirkcaldy YMCA, won the “Outstanding Practices in Staff Development & Training Award” at the Scottish Mentoring Network national event last November. 

“I’m passionate about staff training and development and I love designing and delivering new training programmes. 

Three years ago, Intandem was launched and I had to develop all the training materials from scratch, with the help of Inspiring Scotland.

I’m committed to ensuring that all our mentors have a chance to develop in their mentoring journey. I regularly send them updates to let them know about training opportunities that will allow them to upskill. 

During feedback sessions, I identify their learning needs and then taylor additional training to meet their evolving requirements.

All these opportunities mean that mentors feel they are always developing and learning new skills, even if they’ve been mentoring for years. 

We’ve often had mentors who had their eyes set on a career path but decided to work with young people instead. 

One of our mentors, who has been mentoring with us for over 5 years, had applied to the police when she first started mentoring but she got rejected. She tried 2 years later, but again she didn’t get in. The feedback she received was that she needed more experience working in communities. 

Through mentoring with us she accessed other YMCA programmes and opportunities and she was finally accepted into the police force last year. She was told that her commitment to mentoring young people was the deciding factor in being accepted. 

One of my proudest achievements is that Ashley, one of our mentors, has been awarded mentor of the year. Ashley has gone through a tragedy and yet, she has been so focussed on the wellbeing of her mentee. Even when she had to take time off mentoring, she wrote to her mentee to stay in touch.

For me that’s what makes a great mentee, someone who is committed and who really cares about the young person they support. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of that award and I am so proud she was recognised for the work she does. Read Ashley’s story

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