Orchard Learning and Development Limited played a key role in achieving international accreditation for a UK-wide mentoring programme within local government.

The EO’s highly acclaimed graduate development programme (ngdp), which Orchard was involved in from the  start, established Local Government for the first time as a serious graduate employer. The programme’s mentoring scheme, set up and delivered with Jonathan’s ongoing consultancy support, scooped a top award, the gold standard of the International Standards for Mentoring Programmes in Employment (ISMPE).

It was only the second scheme in the world to achieved this standard.

Over 200 senior figures, such as local authority chief executives, provide mentor support to the ngdp’s management trainees, all of whom were trained in mentoring skills and techniques by Jonathan.

Jill Martin, ngdp Consultant responsible for the mentoring scheme, acknowledges the part Orchard learning and Development Limited played in achieving the gold award. “Jonathan was involved in most aspects of the mentoring programme’s development, including initial design work, establishing selection criteria for mentors, training and matching mentors and mentees, and ongoing evaluation. He has contributed significantly to the scheme’s success”.

In addition to his work on the mentoring scheme, Jonathan has been involved in the ngdp in a variety of other ways, including participant interviewing and assessment, facilitating 50-delegate, 4-day residential National Training Events, and supporting management trainees with career planning as they reached the end of their 2-year programmes.

“Jonathan’s contribution to the ngdp added significantly to its success in its first 2½ years”

- Malcolm Craig, ngdp Programme Manager