Mentoring and regular development conversations are linked to higher engagement, improved performance and stronger skill development.
CIPD, 2023
Mentoring in Minutes
Greatmentoringdoesn'ttakehours.Itjusttakesintention.
A practical video series that helps you support your apprentice to grow in confidence, capability and independence, a few minutes at a time.
Step 01 · Play the intro
What is mentoring?
The Series
High-impact mentoring, in minutes.
In today's fast-changing world of work, mentoring has never been more important, but finding time to build mentoring skills is hard. Mentoring in Minutes gives you high-impact insight in just a few minutes at a time; each short video focuses on a different aspect of effective mentoring, with quick, actionable ideas you can use straight away.
01
Watch
Short, practical videos, a few minutes each.
02
Reflect
Pause-and-reflect prompts you can use straight away.
03
Apply
Try one small change in your next conversation.
04
Progress
Build your skills step by step, at your own pace.
The Journey
Step 1 of 12 · What Is Mentoring?
Step 01
What Is Mentoring?
Supporting growth through guidance, experience, and meaningful conversations.
Mentoring in an apprenticeship is about helping your apprentice succeed in their role, develop their skills, and grow in confidence. It's more than supervision or task-setting. It's a working relationship where you share experience and help them make sense of what they're learning day to day.
- Having regular, focused conversations
- Setting and reviewing clear goals
- Offering guidance, feedback and encouragement
- Asking questions that build confidence and thinking
- Supporting your apprentice through challenges
- Recognising progress and celebrating success
Step 02
Mentoring Skills and Behaviours
How you listen, ask, and respond shapes your apprentice's development.
Great mentoring isn't just about what you know. It's about how you support others. Effective mentors are good listeners, supportive, clear communicators, consistent, curious, and positive role models.
- Active listening: give time to speak and show you're listening before responding
- Asking questions: "What do you think?" to encourage thinking
- Building trust: be consistent, reliable, create a safe space
- Sharing experience: use real examples from your own work
- Encouraging independence: help them find their own solutions
- Being supportive: recognise effort and progress
Step 03
Setting Effective Goals
Clear goals give direction, focus, and motivation for progress.
Without clear goals it's easy for apprentices to lose direction. Effective goals are clear, realistic, relevant and time-bound, and agreed together, giving your apprentice ownership and motivation.
Set goals together
- 1What do you want to achieve?
- 2Why is this important to you?
- 3What's the first step you'll take?
Try this
Break bigger goals into smaller steps. It helps your apprentice stay focused, build confidence, and see progress more clearly.
Step 04
Supporting and Monitoring Progress
Regular check-ins keep development on track and build momentum.
Setting a goal is only the beginning. Progress happens through regular support, guidance and check-ins. Consistent conversations help your apprentice stay focused, overcome challenges and keep moving forward.
Keep conversations on track
- 1REVIEW: What progress has been made since last time?
- 2REFLECT: What helped that progress?
- 3IDENTIFY: What's getting in the way right now?
- 4PLAN: What's the next step?
Step 05
Empowering Through Questions
Asking the right questions builds thinking, ownership, and independence.
Great mentoring isn't about always having the answers. It's about helping your apprentice find their own. The right questions create space for thinking rather than filling it with answers.
- What's really going on here?
- What is the most important part of this situation?
- What might you be overlooking?
- What could you do differently?
- What would success look like here?
- What will you do next?
Step 06
Giving Effective Feedback
Feedback helps build awareness, confidence, and continuous improvement.
Done well, feedback helps your apprentice understand what they're doing well, where they can improve, and what to do next. It's a conversation, not a one-way message, and how it feels matters as much as what is said.
A simple feedback approach
- 1Describe: clearly explain what happened, with specific examples
- 2Explain: highlight the impact of the action or behaviour
- 3Explore: ask questions to encourage reflection
- 4Move Forward: agree clear next steps
- Being too vague
- Giving too much at once
- Focusing only on what went wrong
- Not allowing time for response
- Moving on without agreeing a next step
Step 07
Unlocking Barriers
Support apprentices to work through challenges and build confidence.
Every apprentice hits obstacles. Your role is to help them name what's getting in the way, think it through, and take a clear next step, building the confidence and independence to work through challenges themselves.
Try this
When something's stuck, slow down and ask: What's getting in the way right now? What's within your control? What's one small step forward?
Step 08
Motivating Your Apprentice
Connect learning to purpose to maintain motivation and engagement.
Motivation isn't just enthusiasm. It's helping your apprentice stay focused and committed. It grows through consistent support, not one-off moments: recognise effort, keep goals visible and achievable, and adapt when motivation dips.
- Goals feel unclear or too large
- Progress isn't recognised
- Feedback is inconsistent or unclear
- Challenges feel overwhelming
Step 09
Encouraging Reflective Practice
Reflection turns everyday experience into meaningful learning.
Learning doesn't just come from doing. It comes from thinking about what's been done. Reflection helps your apprentice make sense of experiences, build self-awareness, and decide what to do next.
Experience → Learning → Action
- 1What did you do? What was the outcome?
- 2What worked well? What didn't go as expected? What have you learned?
- 3What would you do differently next time? What's your next step?
Step 10
Stretching to Potential
Challenge and support help apprentices grow beyond their comfort zone.
Growth happens just outside the comfort zone. Stretching means encouraging new tasks, offering chances to lead, and challenging thinking supportively, balanced with the right level of support so it feels achievable, not overwhelming.
The stretch balance
- 1Too little: comfort zone, limited development, reduced engagement
- 2Right level: builds confidence, encourages learning, develops new skills
- 3Too much: overwhelm, loss of confidence, reduced motivation
Step 11
Growth Mindset and Resilience
Encourage a 'not yet' mindset to build resilience and confidence.
A growth mindset helps your apprentice see challenges as opportunities to learn. Instead of focusing on what they can't do yet, they focus on what they can develop over time, and small shifts in your language can change how they think.
- Willingness to try new or difficult tasks
- Openness to feedback and learning
- Seeing effort as part of improvement
- Persistence when things are challenging
Step 12
Supporting Apprentice Wellbeing
A supportive environment helps apprentices feel safe, focused, and valued.
When your apprentice feels supported, valued and able to talk openly, they're more likely to stay engaged and progress. Wellbeing isn't about solving every problem. It's about creating a safe environment. You don't need all the answers; being present makes a difference.
Wellbeing check
Try this
If you have concerns about wellbeing, follow your organisation's processes and seek support from the appropriate teams.
The Mentoring Mindset
Mentoring isn't telling. It's developing.
Mentoring is more than supervision or task-setting. It's a working relationship where you share experience, ask great questions, and help your apprentice understand not just what to do, but why it matters.
✕Instead of this
- Giving answers quickly
- Taking over when things get difficult
- Focusing only on tasks and completion
✓Try this
- Ask first, then guide
- Focus on learning, not just completion
- Support them to work through challenges themselves
"The goal is not to direct. It's to develop independent thinking."
Why it matters
When mentoring is done well, apprentices grow, and organisations thrive.
For your apprentice
- Builds skills, knowledge and confidence
- Applies learning in real work
- Stays motivated and focused
- Learns through reflection and feedback
- Develops resilience through challenge
- Takes ownership of their progress
For your organisation
- Improves team performance and productivity
- Increases engagement and retention
- Closes skills gaps faster
- Builds a stronger learning culture
Mentoring leads to…
Apprentices
who are more confident and capable
Teams
who perform better and stay engaged
Workplaces
that grow stronger and more productive
Your Role
Your role isn't to have all the answers.
You're not there to do the work for your apprentice. You're there to…
→
Guide
Share your knowledge and experience
◇
Support
Create a safe space to learn and grow
↑
Challenge
Stretch thinking and encourage development
♦
Encourage
Build confidence and resilience
Great mentoring helps apprentices become more independent, capable, and confident over time.
Did you know?
The research is clear.
Mentoring supports increased confidence, career progression and professional development.
Institute of Leadership, 2024; EMCC Global, 2023
Using questioning techniques supports stronger problem-solving, independent thinking and more effective learning.
CIPD, 2023; EMCC Global, 2023
How feedback is delivered has a direct impact on how it's received. Clear, respectful feedback keeps apprentices open and engaged.
CIPD, 2023
Mentor self-check
How are you doing?
Tick what you already do. There are no wrong answers. This is a moment for you to reflect on what's working and where to focus next.
Take a moment. Reflect on the last week.
The full guide
Take the whole journey with you.
Prefer to read? The complete Mentoring in Minutes guide brings every step together, with checklists, reflection prompts and practical tips.
Impact Futures Group
Mentoring
in Minutes
in Minutes
The complete guide
FAQ
Questions, answered.
The essentials of everyday mentoring, in one place.
Mentoring is more than supervision or task-setting. It's a relationship where you share experience, ask questions, and help your apprentice understand not just what to do but why it matters, building independence, not dependence.
To guide, support, challenge and encourage, not to have all the answers or do the work for them.
Just a few minutes each. Mentoring in Minutes is built for busy schedules: high-impact insight you can apply straight away.
Clear, realistic, relevant and time-bound, and agreed together, so your apprentice has ownership and direction.
Regularly, not just at formal reviews. Consistent, focused conversations keep development active and momentum going.
Use a simple structure: Describe what happened, Explain its impact, Explore with questions, then agree how to Move Forward. Start with what worked, be specific, invite their perspective, and agree one clear next step.
Motivation grows through consistent support, not one-off moments. Keep goals visible and achievable, recognise effort as well as outcomes, and adapt when motivation dips.
It's helping your apprentice see challenges as chances to learn: a "not yet" rather than "can't". Small shifts in language build resilience and confidence over time.
Create a safe space, notice changes, listen without judgement, and check in regularly. You don't need all the answers. Being present matters. If you have concerns, follow your organisation's processes and signpost to the right support.
The journey is designed to build step by step, but each video also stands alone. Dip in wherever you need support today.
Start building mentoring into your everyday practice.
Because great mentoring doesn't take hours. It just takes intention.