Frequently asked questions
All final year veterinary students about to graduate may participate as mentees. As a general rule, this program is only open for AVA members to participate as mentors. Any non-member participation will be considered on an individual basis, and will need a recommendation put forward by the respective AVA Division.
Mentees pay no fees to participate in the program. Mentors are volunteers and pay no fees, training is provided free of charge.
All participants are responsible for any travel and accommodation costs involved with attending any events associated with the program.
To join as a mentee, you must be in your final year of veterinary study, about to commence work.
* As of October 2017, we also welcome any AVA graduate members in their 2nd, 3rd or 4th year out to apply
To join as a mentor, you must have at least three years’ experience in the profession, and be an AVA member
Both mentees and mentors must also be willing to attend program events, webinars and complete the training provided.
The information you provide will help us ‘match’ the right mentee with the right mentor, based on experience, skills and what you both want to achieve from the program.
A few weeks after you have uploaded your profile, we will contact you to confirm whether you’ve been accepted into the program and who has been selected as your mentoring partner.
If your application is successful, you will need to attend the following:
- Program Introduction and Training meeting (or webinar) – 1- 2 hours
- Progress Review meeting (or webinar) – 1 hour
- Program Close meeting (or webinar) - 1 hour
If you cannot attend the first meeting you will be asked to complete a 45-minute webinar information session and one-hour online training. Whichever training you do, it will help provide you with the knowledge and skills to have a successful mentoring relationship.
It will be up to each mentee/mentor pair to establish their own timetables for their one-on-one meetings, which would probably take place at least monthly for the program's period.
Absolutely! Great mentee/mentor relationships are based first and foremost on trust. Your participation in the program is confidential and you will agree with your mentoring partner how you will handle confidentiality between you.
Yes, all mentors and mentees will be allocated 2 structured points for participating in the mentor/mentee training. Depending on the state/territory that you are registered in you can also claim 0.5 to 1 unstructured points for each hour time spent working with your mentor/mentee.
The students presently in the Sydney University BVSc course spend their fifth year undertaking extramural training consisting of ten one month rotations through a variety of career options. During this time they are offered mentoring through the University’s Intern Mentoring Program. The AVA Graduate Mentoring Program is designed to follow immediately on from this program and covers their first year after graduation. Where possible mentees are encouraged and facilitated to continue with the same mentor through the two programs, as such being a Mentor in both programs will give the best results.
Sydney University have also recently invited some mentors to be involved in a new program mentoring groups of first year students in the DVM course.
In summary for Sydney University students, there are three separate programs for differing stages in the student / new graduate’s career. They complement each other and you may elect to be a mentor in one, two or all of them.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the program, please contact us and we'd be happy to hear from you!
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