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Mentoring
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Mentoring

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Mentoring can unlock potential and help transform the structural engineering community.

It supports professional and career growth, with mentors and mentees navigating together the opportunities and inspirational challenges of structural engineering.

Read more on this page about how we approach mentoring. 

We look forward to matching our next round of mentors and mentees and will contact our next mentoring cohort this summer. If you have recently applied to Elevate, we will be in touch with you soon. 

Why mentoring matters

Mentoring is a powerful catalyst for change.

  • For mentees, it is an effective way to progress your career by accessing the knowledge and experience of an expert, impartial mentor.

  • For mentors, it can develop your existing leadership skills by supporting a mentee’s growth. It is about giving back to the profession, enhancing your skills and sharing your knowledge and experiences to help mentees.

Mentoring can also help both mentors and mentees complete their IStructE annual CPD submission under the following areas:

  • Work-based learning 
  • Horizon-broadening activities 
  • Self-directed study

Elevate mentoring for personal growth and professional leadership

Elevate is our mentoring programme with a focus on career advancement and personal development, rather than for achieving professional membership/registration. Elevate is aimed at members at every level - from Student to Fellow. 

It pairs mentees with mentors who can share their insights on a wide variety of topics to expand mentees’ skills and success in:

Join Elevate

Mentee: Register your interest here. If you are seeking mentoring for the fellowship route, please state this in the objectives box in the Mentee "register your interest" form.

Mentor: You will play a vital role in shaping the future of structural engineering by working with mentees on their goals and aspirations. Experienced, professionally qualified, members interested in being an Elevate mentor can register here.

We will then match mentor with mentee, and will be in touch about next steps. If you are interested, please read our Elevate handbook.

This form is not for those looking for IPD / PRI. Please refer to our Professional Mentoring Handbook for information.


Mentoring for membership and IPD

A mentor can guide you towards Associate, Chartered, Technician and Incorporated Membership as part of your Initial Professional Development (IPD), helping you develop and meet the core objectives related to each grade of membership.

A mentor should be a professionally qualified member or someone of equivalent standing – this is especially important for routes to membership and IPD. Mentors play an important role in ensuring that candidates have demonstrated the required competence to pass the Professional Review Interview (PRI) when they apply. Mentors should assist and guide candidates in satisfying the IPD requirements in preparation for the PRI.

If you are interested, please read our Professional Mentoring handbook which explains how mentoring for membership and IPD operates.

Mentees can download this to share with the senior engineers you have agreed to work with as mentors to help you through your journey to professional registration.

Potential mentors and mentees

Please also email [email protected], so that we can log your name as we look to develop IPD mentoring in the future.

 

Hear more from our Elevate mentors and mentees:

Blog
Image of a man smiling

Elevate case study: Matt Byatt

For IStructE's past-President (2023), mentoring is both a professional responsibility and a personal commitment. 

Matt draws on decades of experience across the UK construction industry and the energy sector, while acting as a mentor for the Institution's Elevate mentoring programme.

Blog
Image of Osazee Harrison Oravbiere Elevate mentee

Elevate case study:
Osazee Harrison Oravbiere

Osazee Harrison Oravbiere is originally from Nigeria and now a PhD candidate in Resilient Infrastructure Systems at the University of Georgia. He finds being an Elevate mentee is a better way to understand the profession of structural engineering beyond the university setting.

Blog
A person wearing glasses smiling

Elevate case study:
Paola Casagrande

Paola Casagrande is a Chartered Structural Engineer, Fellow of IStructE, and Safety Director at Ramboll. Paola's  significant experience of the industrial and process engineering sector, safety, and wellbeing, increased her desire to volunteer to be a Mentor for Elevate

Blog
Image of Sangeeta Chachadi

Elevate case study:
Sangeeta Chachadi

Sangeeta Chachadi is a Chartered Engineer with Engineering Council, Associate member with IStructE and Senior Principal Engineer at AtkinsRéalis. Sangeeta shares how navigating her professional journey is deeply personal and why it led her to be an Elevate mentor.
 

Blog
Image of Felix Wheeler

Elevate case study: Felix Wheeler

For Germany-based structural engineer Felix Wheeler, who is half British and half German, Elevate has been more than a mentoring programme — it has been a bridge into a professional community to which he previously had no access.  

Blog
Image of Shana Mehdizadeh

Elevate case study:
Shana Mehdizadeh

Shana, who works in AECOM’s Building Structures group and has delivered projects across Australia, Hong Kong, and the Middle East, joined Elevate in search of a dedicated technical mentor to support her career progression. 
 

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