

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has launched a new platform to put occupational safety and health professionals in touch with one another for the purpose of sharing expertise, knowledge and development opportunities.
IOSH Mentoring has been designed to create a collaborative community that can help members in their careers and enhance both their technical OSH knowledge and business skills.
The platform has been developed in line with IOSH’s new competency framework, which helps members identify gaps in knowledge and areas where they could benefit from additional support.
Users can sign up as either mentors, mentees or both and create a profile where they can list areas of expertise, interests and learning requirements. The platform will help to ‘pair up’ like-minded individuals, who can then reach out to one another.
Nearly 500 mentors and mentees have already signed up to the platform.


The mentoring platform will allow mentors to improve their leadership and communication skills by supporting mentees with their career development. Mentees will be able to identify gaps in their knowledge and learn from their mentors. The platform encourages reverse mentoring, with both parties benefiting from shared expertise and insights.
The platform also allows users to record advice, guidance and progress, helping members to set realistic and achievable goals and work towards them. This can be especially useful when logging activity as part of members’ continuing professional development (CPD).
IOSH Mentoring complements the existing mentoring work being conducted by members and provides a structured platform through which individuals can communicate and support one another.
IOSH Mentoring is the first of a range of exciting initiatives planned throughout 2020 to help better support the needs of IOSH members. The new professional journey will be launched next year with an enhanced suite of practical tools to guide skills and career development. This will include Blueprint 2.0, a new CPD scheme, new technical guides and a free Career Hub for members, with access to thousands of learning resources and career planning tools.
Matt Rockley, Head of Customer Service and Experience at IOSH, said: “IOSH Mentoring is an important step in expanding and enhancing how we support the professional development needs of our members.
“Those starting out in the industry, as well as members who have been working in OSH for a long time, can benefit immensely from two-way conversations, sharing expertise and knowledge in a constructive and supportive environment.
“The platform will allow members across the globe to communicate and learn from one another, helping to enhance the profession through shared knowledge and expertise and supporting IOSH in our goal to make a healthier and safer world of work for everyone.”
Jamie Laing, a member of the IOSH Future Leaders Community Steering Group, said: “It’s great that mentors and mentees can be shown to be open to a mentoring relationship. The process of approaching prospective mentors can be daunting and this new platform takes the fear out of it.”
To access IOSH Mentoring, visit: https://www.iosh.com/ioshmentoring
To find out more about the Future Leaders Community, visit: https://www.iosh.com/futureleaders