Exploring Mentees’ Needs from a Mentoring Program: Towards the Development of a Mentoring Toolkit

Abstract

This study aimed to find out mentees' needs from a mentoring program, mentor characteristics that are considered desirable by mentees, and to develop the mentoring toolkit. It was based on a developmental research design. Through purposive or selective sampling, it involved eight (8) informants. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and mentoring chat records were used to collect data, which was then analyzed using NVivo Software under the guidance of the qualitative content analysis technique. A duly-validated researcher-made instrument was used to evaluate the toolkit's acceptability. Mentees' needs included study abilities, thinking skills, resource management, teaching skills, personal and family concerns, and articulated mentors' desirable characteristics, according to part one (1) of this study. The five (5) components of the toolkit that was developed were listed in the second (2) portion of this study. Targets, Ideas, Plans, and Supplements were the four (4) parts of the toolkit. The toolkit also includes six (6) mentoring blocks, and the physical attributes, objectives, content, usefulness, and self-help aspects of the toolkit were all evaluated outstanding (M = 3.92). Mentoring programs are useful in determining the needs of mentees as well as providing a basis for developing materials that are useful to both mentors and mentees.