First of all, you need to make a formal application to participate in the program. This is an important step which requires you to think about your goals as a participant and clearly articulate them in your application. Please note that the Expressions of Interest in the 2017 Program are now open.
Participating in the program requires significant commitment from you in terms of time management, professionalism and reliability. If your current circumstances make this commitment difficult to give for whatever reason, it is best not to apply until such times as you can actively participate as you are unlikely to be able to benefit fully from the opportunity and may prevent someone else who can commit from taking a place in what is a highly competitive selection process.
After the closing date, all mentee applications are assessed by an independent committee which includes Chamber team members, board members and previous program participants. Those applications which meet the assessment criteria are referred to prospective mentors. The mentor will make a decision on whether or not they take on a particular mentee and this is not within the control of the IACC. As your application will be given to the prospective mentor, it is in your interests to take care to make your application as strong as possible in order to increase the likelihood of being accepted by a quality mentor.
Our aim is to make initial pairings and introductions within 4 weeks of the closing date in order to allow preliminary meetings to take place well in advance of mobilisations. However, as our selection committee and mentors are volunteers and this is a busy period, this might not always be possible.
We tell unsuccessful applicants as soon as possible that they have not made the shortlist but on occasion with holidays etc you may experience a delay in moving from provisional shortlist to mentor preliminary introduction and request your patience and understanding during this period. Our volunteers have many applicants to support at this time and cannot always respond immediately to requests for updates.
