How Mentoring Program Participation Impacts the Professional Development of Student Services Staff at Waukesha County Technical College

Plan BWaukesha County Technical College is located in Pewaukee, Wisconsin and has a student body of approximately 16,000 students (WCTC, n.d.). During the 2021-2022 school year the student services division of WCTC launched a mentoring program for staff. The goal of the program is to provide an additional professional development and networking opportunity to student services employees. During the inaugural year, 13 pairs participated in the program. A primarily quantitative evaluation, completed using a post-program completion survey, was used to analyze the impact of the program on participants. The survey consisted of 12 questions. 10 of the questions contained a rating scale of one to five, one being very unsatisfied and five being very satisfied. The remaining two questions requested short answers regarding the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the program. Out of 23 participants, 18 completed the survey. The results concluded that participating in the mentoring program helped employees to progress towards reaching their professional goals and determined that employees found the professional development offered through the program to be valuable. These results led to the suggestion of continuing the formal program, having the committee provide more professional resources to the pairs as conversation topics, and offering more check-in opportunities throughout the program year