Assumption
In the “Mentoring Across Borders” (MAB) context, mentoring is a confidential agreement between two people, the content and objectives of which are known and determined only by themselves. One person serves as a mentor, the other as a mentee.
In an initial get-to-know-you meeting, the mentee can express their wishes and ideas to the mentor and describe the problems they expect the mentor to help them overcome. The mentor then decides whether they will be available to the mentee as a companion/motivator for a period of time to be determined. If both agree, the target agreement should be drawn up, containing: a time frame, problem definition, frequency of meetings and a confidentiality notice.
Termination of the mentoring is possible at any time by both parties without giving reasons.
Role and responsibilities of the mentoring hub
Mentoring hubs are organisations – preferably with a not-for-profit status – constituting the nodes of the mentoring network that MAB intends to build. Therefore, they will be called upon to support mentors and stimulate mentees to join them.
Mentoring hubs have a key role in the MAB process.
Once each mentor and mentee have registered in the platform, the mentoring hub of reference for them has to approve their online profiles, by authorising their publication, so ending the position of pending registrations. The mentoring hub person in charge of the matching (preferably an experienced mentor chosen among the staff or the volunteers) is notified from the platform of each registration of new users, both mentors and mentees. This person in charge assigns a mentee to the mentor they judge as the best possible match for them and consequently sends the mutual contact details to the two parties.
A mentoring hub must be willing not only to match mentor and mentee but also to establish a collaborative relationship with both. It must make itself available to advise the mentor on how to manage the mentoring process in general and how to handle any critical issues in the relationship with the mentee. Likewise, it should make itself available to the mentee to solve any critical or conflicting situations with the respective mentor, even going so far as to propose the dissolution of the pair and a new matching, in the event of serious incompatibilities.
The mentoring hub is obliged to provide the mentor with all support required, from a technical, bureaucratic or relationship management point of view with the mentee.
It should moreover facilitate an exchange of experiences among mentors, e.g. by organising meetings where they can exchange advice and opinions.
The mentoring hub should also be interested in the sustainability of the MAB mentoring programme, committing itself to its dissemination and updating if it becomes necessary based on socio-demographic changes and the progressive mutation in the needs of the younger generations.
The mentoring hub will have to draft the agreement between the mentor and mentee by fulfilling an online form on the MAB platform: it concerns the description of the measures to be followed in order to reach the mentoring goal(s).
Since the obligation between the mentoring hub and mentor is based on a collaboration agreement of a voluntary nature, the organisation cannot have any legal recourse against the mentor who decides to withdraw from the mentoring process, nor against the mentee, for the same reasons.
In the countries where it is applicable, for the duration of the mentoring assignment, the mentoring hub has to include mentors in its insurance. This only includes private liability and accident insurance in the context of the mentor's activity – not any health issues, which they have to provide for themself.
The mentoring hub has to administer, collect and retain the informed consent forms under Art. 13 EU Reg. no. 2016/679, to protect the Privacy Policy of the mentor and mentee. It undertakes to carefully store the data collected, so as not to incur the risk of a data breach.
Disclaimer of responsibility for the mentoring hub
The mentoring hub cannot be considered responsible for any critical event that may occur during the mentoring process between the mentor and the mentee.
As above specified, through a designated person in charge, the mentoring hub assigns a mentee to the mentor it judges as the best possible match: however, this does not imply that the same person in charge of the matching – as well as the legal representative or each other members of staff or volunteers of the mentoring hub – may be held responsible for any misconduct or misbehaviour of the mentor towards the mentee or vice versa.
The civil (or even criminal) liability for any deviant actions during the mentoring process lies exclusively with the two persons who are the protagonists of the established relationship, i.e. mentor and mentee.
In the same way and for the same principle of the sole responsibility for the individual people involved in the binary mentor-mentee relationship, the mentoring hub cannot be held responsible for a failure to achieve the objectives and consequently for a lack of success of the mentoring process, even if it were ascertained that – for various reasons – the mentoring hub was unable to provide the mentor with the necessary support. However, it remains possible for the mentor to request to be assigned to another mentoring hub if they consider the support received not adequate or their registration on the platform was not confirmed and/or no mentee was assigned to them within three months from the creation of their own online profile.