Discover the findings from ACE’s nine-month cross-industry reverse mentoring pilot on 6 June at the Skills Summit 2018.

Like all the best ideas, reverse mentoring is a simple concept. Turning the traditional mentoring model on its head, experienced colleagues are mentored by members of staff from either a younger generation, background or experience.

While many schemes often focus on generational issues, such as differing understanding of technology and emerging business trends, reverse mentoring can also be used to help companies break through unconscious bias, reduce discrimination and positively improve workplace diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity and age.

In line with the philosophy of reverse mentoring, the pilot was suggested to ACE by our Progress Network – a nationwide group led by those within the first 15 years of their career for the identification, development and empowerment of future leaders of the industry.

The eventual pilot brought together pairings from Arcadis, BWB, Peter Brett Associates, Max Fordham, Tony Gee and Partners and WSP to explore the potential for reverse mentoring in our sector. The pilot also used some ideas from Mott MacDonald's internal reverse mentoring scheme.

We will be sharing the findings from the pilot in a report which will be released at the Skills Summit on 6 June 2018. Before then, here’s a preview of some of the findings. Richard and Sarah shared their experiences of reverse mentoring at WSP.

 ACE's Progress Network is now known as ACE Emerging Professionals. The group is sponsored by Mott MacDonald.