Mentoring Guidance

Professional Conversation

Please take advantage of the following resources to help develop your professional conversation.

Mentoring Support

Once you have completed the compulsory elements of APEX, your journey will have started and you will be invited to join a professional conversation cohort. Download the Professional Conversation Participant Guide for full details about mentoring support and engaging with the Professional Conversation Cohort.

The Professional Conversation Cohort

The APEX programme has developed a very effective approach to mentoring support for the written pathway, so we have given serious thought to how we replicate the level of support for the professional conversation, where we can’t comment on drafts. Our approach is therefore based on the creation of professional conversation cohorts that will form the basis of a peer-based conversation circle – in effect a dialogic action learning set. These cohorts will comprise approximately 10 participants, each applying for a different category of Fellowship. The aim is to offer three cohorts a year each aligning to an APEX submission point. All details about the timing of these cohorts is available via the APEX website.

Forming The Professional Conversation Cohort

Three months prior to an APEX submission point, those applicants that have expressed an interest in the professional conversation are invited to join a professional conversation cohort and asked to attend a mandatory professional conversation briefing where the process is explained in more detail. Particular attention is given to the conversation cycles that the cohort will be expected to embark on over the next three months to help prepare for their professional conversation.

So whilst participants on the written route will focus on drafting their submissions, your engagement on the professional conversation will centre on engaging in and leading conversations with peers in the cohort. Support material and prompt sheets to facilitate these discussions are available on the APEX website and covered at the initial professional conversation briefing. Over the course of the three-month period each participant must have engaged in a minimum of three conversations – with at least one of these conversations taking place with someone applying for the same category of Fellowship as yourself. Conversations will not be restricted to the same category of Fellowship that participants are applying for, as we believe the opportunity for cross-fertilisation and wider sharing of practice and reflection, against the UKPSF, is an inherent advantage of this approach. You will be offered an initial level of administrative support and the cohort’s engagement is tracked using a centralised Google calendar that you will have access to.

Arranging Cohort-Based Conversations

How the individual conversations within the cohort are arranged is at your discretion and can be conducted face-to-face or online. There is however, one condition: conversations need to be recorded. So, if meeting face-to-face an audio recording would suffice or if meeting online captured in Zoom. Access to the recording is limited to those colleagues taking part in the conversation and the professional cohort mentor so they can be used as a reflective tool for enhancement.

To aid reflection of the conversation, a checklist against which to review your conversation, against the UKPSF and relevant criteria, is available via the APEX website. The aim of these conversation cycles – an effective action learning set - is to enhance your confidence around developing a sustained and engaging narrative about your practice, and in doing so making sure that you are meeting the required standard commensurate with the level of Fellowship you are applying for.

You are advised to schedule a one-hour meeting for each conversation; so over the course of three months your minimum engagement time with the conversation cycle is 3 hours. You can of course have as many conversations in the cohort as you like if other participants are happy to reciprocate. Please note this is a compulsory part of the professional conversation route and evidence of these meetings is logged on the Google calendar. Failure to engage fully with these activities will prevent you from progressing to the formal progressional conversation and delay your claim for Fellowship.

The Role of the Professional Conversation Cohort Mentor

Central to the professional conversation cohort is the role played by the cohort mentor who provides support around several specific areas:

  1. The mentor will lead and facilitate the professional cohort briefing and will be your individual point of contact throughout your journey. You are free to contact your mentor at any point if you have any queries or questions.

  2. To facilitate engagement within the cohort the mentor will also take the lead on triggering conversations. This activity will be based on Padlet, and your mentor will video and post a conversation starter on a regular basis over the course of the three-month period. You will then be asked to video and share your reply via Padlet (max 5 min). The cohort will then be able to comment on each other’s posts.

  3. The cohort mentor is available to provide detailed feedback on emergent drafts of your presentation and provide guidance on content.

  4. In addition to conversations with other cohort participants you are also allocated a preparatory conversation (a rehearsal) with the mentor.

Professional Conversation Participant Notes

*PC - PARTICIPANT GUIDANCE 2022.pdf

Professional Conversation - Participant Guidance Notes

Professional Conversation - Conversation Starters

D1 QUESTIONS (A4L).pdf
D2 QUESTIONS (A4L).pdf
D3 QUESTIONS (A4L).pdf