Since there aren’t very many academic-level courses in technical authoring in the UK, very few people who become Technical Authors have any formal training or prior awareness of the role.

Mentoring is a powerful tool in a person’s career development, and Technical Authors can benefit greatly from having a mentor who understands the role. You benefit by enhancing your staff member’s morale and improving their productivity.

By using Cherryleaf to provide the mentoring, you can have one of our experienced professionals nurture members of your team who are starting their career in technical authoring, and train them to be effective technical communicators.

How does it work?

Our approach is friendly, relaxed, and personable. We provide support, guidance, structure, and accountability. Each mentoring session builds on the progress made in the last session until we achieve your goals.

Each mentor/client agrees to an arrangement for a set period of time, that is determined in advance, based on your specific qualifications and unique needs.

Mentoring is usually arranged weekly, fortnightly or monthly, for a full hour each session. It can be provided through a combination of regular telephone and Skype calls, face to face (depending on location) coaching sessions and emails .

We have some pre-session questions for you to fill out, so we can find out a bit more about you, and your situation.

You’ll be able to create the overall direction for your mentor programme, along with an agenda that you bring to the session each time.

Each session addresses the ongoing issues from the previous session and address where your work is headed.

All mentoring work requires up-front payment. Sessions are 1 hour in length and you are required to participate in a minimum of six sessions, which can occur anytime within a six month period.

If by any chance you have difficulty in attending the scheduled appointment time, please contact us within 24 hours to arrange a mutually convenient time.

Some things to keep in mind

• Have a realistic expectation about what can be achieved. For example, it can take more than six sessions to take a complete novice to advanced level.
• Your willingness to learn will have a big impact on the time it takes you to improve your capabilities.
• We don’t know everything. We have a lot of experience in technical communications, but there may be questions we can’t answer straight away. However, we’ll do our best to help you find the answers.