ISMCP GOLD Accreditation for Royal New Zealand Air Force

Brussels, 12 June 2018 – The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) was awarded the ISMCP (International Standards for Mentoring and Coaching Programmes) at Gold level from EMCC on 5 April 2018.

Chief of Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies said the ‘gold accreditation reconfirmed the RNZAF was delivering a high quality product – one that has been benchmarked against international standards and best practice’.

‘I was delighted to work with Tracey and the team from the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) to complete the assessment of their mentoring programme. The design, delivery, evaluation, and support systems in place are exemplary’ said Dr Julie Haddock-Millar, EMCC International ISMCP WorkGroup Leader.

RNZAF is the first organisation in New Zealand, and the first military in the world, to gain this significant milestone in its 10 year history. Because of this award the RNZAF Mentoring Programme will continue to be a key enabler to support and develop their people, to encourage innovation, and to enable people’s full potential to be reached.

The RNZAF mentoring programme operates within a strict military hierarchal environment where compulsion is the norm for most activities. In a break with tradition, and most other workplace mentoring programmes, the RNZAF’s Programme is run by volunteers and it would not be successful without the continued effort and support of the Mentoring Advisory Teams, trainers/facilitators, mentors and mentees who dedicate their time to be involved. The Air Force hierarchy has also been resolute in their support of the programme.

The RNZAF’s mentoring programme was developed as a result of an idea in the RNZAF’s Innovation Scheme, a scheme that recognised the best ideas are not always ‘top-down’. Its intent was to use people to develop people. Assisted by the New Zealand Coaching and Mentoring Centre, the mentoring volunteers have continued to improve and develop the programme. The programme has grown from a focus on developing junior ranks, to being available Air Force wide to all ranks and civilian staff. Uniquely when compared to most other mentoring programmes, all participants self-select to join the programme. There is no tie-in with performance management systems and the privacy of the mentoring relationship is considered sacrosanct. It is a programme that is overwhelmingly mentee centric and driven by their needs. Furthermore, sometimes a mentee’s goals and aspirations may not always be obviously linked to organisational strategic objectives. This is an unusual notion to those from a non-military context.

The programme currently has over 115 active mentor/mentee relationships and the accreditation means it will continue to grow in mentoring relationships. With the acknowledgement of the success of the programme they have been able to assist other agencies within New Zealand with their mentoring programmes. They have built new mentoring relationships with personnel outside of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), and will start building on including ex-service to assist with mentoring relationships for personnel transitioning from service to civilian life.

The RNZAF Mentoring Programme has had quite a year ‘celebrating its 10-year anniversary and being awarded a Gold standard by the EMCC for ISMCP. The continued success of the programme relies heavily on ensuring we keep up with the standards and we continually benchmark ourselves against international mentoring programmes. This will enable them to have an exemplar mentoring programme that benefits the organisation and changes lives by growing a field of tall poppies’ said Ex-Warrant Officer Robyn Gell.

About ISMCP

ISMCP is an independent accreditation awarded to organisations designing, delivering and evaluating mentoring and/or coaching programmes either ‘in-house’ or externally. It is an integral and essential step on the path to establishing the professional credibility and status of good mentoring and/or coaching programme management, ensuring programmes are:

• Thoughtfully designed
• Systematically managed
• Significantly contributing to the development of participants, strategic drivers of the organisation and wider stakeholder objectives.

About EMCC

The EMCC is an international coaching, mentoring, and supervision association established in 1992. EMCC is made up of Affiliated Countries in Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the Asia Pacific Region. We have over 5,000 members across more than 70 countries world-wide.

EMCC exists to develop, promote, and set the expectation of best practice in mentoring and coaching across Europe and beyond, for the benefit of society. Our vision is to be the ‘go to’ body in mentoring, coaching and supervision.

For more information on EMCC visit www.emccouncil.org

For more information on ISMCP visit www.ISMCP.org

Contact: EMCC.Administrator@emccouncil.org