Review the importance of mentoring young graduates in the construction sector in South Africa

Mentoring is important for all graduates entering the workplace, but especially for those who are struggling to come to grips with the expectations of the workplace and its language, literacy and numeracy demands. The purpose of this paper is to study the importance of mentorship in the workplace, specifically the impact of mentorship programs for young graduates, in the construction industry and to define what mentoring is, what it entails and to report findings of a study aimed at investigating the necessity, if any, for mentoring and programmes in South African, construction industry. The study was mainly a literature review with a special focus on mentoring. The data used in the report was mainly qualitative, based on the, case studies and historical data. The review is a brief exploration into mentoring of graduates entering the work place. The scope of this review is confined to the literature that discusses mentoring internal to the workplace which support on – and off job learning. The research revealed that there are several mentoring programmes being utilised throughout South Africa, with very positive results. However, these structured mentoring programmes are not being utilised to their full potential by the construction industry. The study revealed that graduates were very enthusiastic to participate in a structured mentoring programme; and also that, mentoring is recommended in a number of studies, particularly where the workplace’s language, literacy or numeracy may be an issue for the graduates entering the workplace