First of all, you need to make a formal application to participate in the program. This is an important step which requires you to think about your goals as a participant and clearly articulate them in your application.
Participating in the program requires significant commitment from Mentees, who must be financial members, in terms of time management, professionalism and reliability. If your current circumstances make this commitment difficult to give for whatever reason, it is best not to apply until such times as you can actively participate, as you are unlikely to be able to benefit fully from the opportunity, and may prevent someone else who can commit from taking a place in what is a highly competitive program.
After the closing date, all Mentee applications are assessed by an independent committee which includes Chamber team members, board members and previous program participants. Those applications which meet the assessment criteria are referred to prospective mentors. The Mentor will make a decision on whether or not they take on a particular Mentee and this is not within the control of the IACC. As your application will be given (in its entirety) to the prospective Mentor, it is in your interests to take care to make your application as strong as possible in order to increase the likelihood of being accepted by a quality Mentor.
Our aim is to make initial pairings and facilitate introductions upon successful completion of the mobilisation workshop.
We tell unsuccessful applicants as soon as possible that they have not made the shortlist but on occasion you may experience a delay in moving from provisional shortlist to being scheduled into a mobilisation workshop and request your patience and understanding during this period. Our volunteers have hundreds of applicants to support at this time and cannot always respond immediately to requests for updates, indeed time taken responding to multiple messages can prevent cases being progressed as intended.
