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TBI Mentorship program moving forward

First announced at the March TBI breakfast meeting, plans for The Biotechnology Initiative’s (TBI) mentorship program are moving along quite nicely, with the mentorship committee anticipating a September launch. Heading up the committee is Jill Osborne who says right now organizers will use the summer months to iron out the final details while setting up a web-based program that will best match participants.

“We have a great team of 14 people putting this together and a lot of thought has gone into providing the best possible program for TBI members,” states Osborne. “The goal right now is to familiarize TBI members with the program, how it will work in terms of its design, and deciding which participants will make for the best matches,” she said.

With human resource shortages in the biotech sector, and industry scientists and academic departments having very little knowledge of the business side of the industry, the creation of such a program addresses a major need not just for biotech in Ontario but also for TBI members to develop strong and trusted relationships in the industry.

“Our vision for the program is to enhance the learning, business and scientific aptitude of each TBI member, to successfully match mentors and protégés in meaningful one on one relationships, provide structure and guidance for participants and help TBI members develop essential skills that are outside their place of work.”

On the latter point Osborne says that the way the program will work to find the best matches will be through a multi-step process that begins with the online application for both mentee and mentor. The way this will work is participants will create a profile describing who they are and what type of mentee/mentor relationship they are looking for. TBI has created a database that will store this information and use it to recommend partnerships. These will be listed and ranked through the semi-automated process and the list will be sent out participants. This will be followed by meet and greet session where mentees and mentors will get to meet those prospective partners on their individual lists and decide on the best possible match. Osborne explains that by combining the semi-automated results and the meet and greet session both mentee and mentor will have the necessary information they need to make sure that they are making the right decision in deciding on a mentor or protégé.

The program will be open to the general community, but will only allow protégés who are TBI members to be mentees. “We want to create this as a value added to TBI members,” she explained.

Full details of the TBI mentorship program will be provided at TBI’s September 17th, 2009 breakfast meeting, but Osborne encourages members who want to know more about the program and how it will work to either visit TBI’s website beforehand or contact the mentorship committee directly at tbimentorship@gmail.com.