Review into the treatment of women at the Australian Defence Force ...

Chapter 8: Midshipmen and Cadets are Young People and Future Leaders – Recommendations 16-18Existing squadron mentoring programWhile not part of the Recommendation itself, the existing squadron mentoring program was discussedin the ADFA Report. This is an existing mentoring system which pairs senior and junior undergraduatesin semi-formal situations. 40 The first problem with this mentoring program became apparent during theReview in a focus group where an undergraduate commented:they haven’t really put you with people you have anything in common with. They’re notnecessarily people in your Service or your degree or maybe your sport or something like that likewhere it would be good if you know, you had an engineer with an engineer. 41Undergraduates also commented that mentoring did not occur on a frequent enough basis such thatsufficiently deep relationships could be formed. For example, the Audit heard:The mentoring program this year is a bit of a waste of time …we’ve only seen them, associatedwith them maybe…four or five times. So we don’t really even know them, so it’s not like youactually talk to them about anything personal. 42It was noted in the ADFA Report that this mentoring program is ‘very new and requires close monitoringin order to ensure that it achieves its intended purposes.’ 43 Despite the problems associated with thematching process being raised in the ADFA Report and the Review’s accompanying comments thatthis needs to be addressed and monitored, the Audit was frequently told that this process remaineddeficient. For example, the Audit heard that for some squadrons the ‘mentor group is based on yourroom number’ 44 with no reference to the degree stream of the undergraduates. As stated in a focusgroup:We have nothing in common in terms of our degree or career...And so if I have an issue... if I havea question about something, I’m not likely to go ask him because he’s not going to be able tohelp me…So maybe when you do the mentor structuring, structure it a little better, so stick artstudents with art students and engineers with engineers. 45However, other squadrons did respond to undergraduate feedback. For example:in our second year we were part of a mentor group… and they were all mixed around and wedidn’t really have anything in common… Then this year they moved the mentor groups [to]degree streams first, because they asked everyone for their opinion of what they’d prefer. Theywent to degree stream and then tried to match the Services. So I’m pretty lucky. 46The Audit requested documentation in respect of the matching process and was advised that ‘this year[2013] all squadrons have aligned mentors with degree streams.’ 47 The Audit supports this development.It is suggested that the matching process for the mentoring program be closely monitored and adjustedin line with both undergraduate feedback and good practice.72