A place for mentoring in engineering education

In a study of self-made \´alchemists\´, Handy (1999) concluded "Mentors and role models were important for everyone." Mentoring has an increasingly important role in the development of today\´s professional engineers and can provide continuity throughout a career from engineering education through lifelong professional development. Mentoring almost parallels lifelong learning in that it already exists for some schoolchildren (as budding engineers) through to qualified, trained and experienced professionals. Undergraduate engineers at an intermediate stage in their careers may well also particularly benefit from the assistance of a mentor to complement the services of academic tutors.