All the right features: towards an ‘architecture’ for mentoring trainee teachers in UK further education colleges

Abstract

This paper reviews the range of institutional strategies which it might be appropriate and desirable to have in place to support and enhance the effective mentoring of trainee teachers in UK colleges of further education. The high degree of importance being attached to mentoring by various government bodies, with reference to initial teacher education in particular, is emphasised, as is the rapidity with which this state of affairs has been arrived at. The notion of an institutional architecture for mentoring activity is proposed; this comprises features ranging from those structures necessary to allow certain basic mentoring activities, to those with a more strategic and longer‐term significance. In conclusion, the likely costs of failing to acknowledge the need to build institutional capabilities for mentoring alongside developing individual mentors' skills are identified.