Get Certified

The Mentoring Standard mentor certification program is on hold while Katy Dickinson is in graduate school. Since 2018, she has been studying at the Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley, California. Please follow her activities on Katysblog.  

Mentoring Standard celebrates mentors with deep experience who have done the work of helping people to achieve their goals and grow their careers. The company was founded in 2015 in the Silicon Valley to offer an experience-based evaluation for mentors and mentoring programs that is not tied to a particular training or curriculum.

Great mentoring isn’t the result of completing a check list or training program. Mentoring Standard honors real mentoring experience and accomplishment from broad range of fields: Entrepreneur, Social or Community, Professional, Sports, Youth and many more. Mentor Certification documents and celebrates your past and ongoing mentoring accomplishments – it does not require you to join a new mentoring program or take additional training.  Contact us to start the conversation on how you can become a certified mentor.

Honor Roll of Certified Mentors

Certification Benefits to Mentors

• Establishes a current public record of successful and effective mentoring and growth, not tied to one particular mentoring program.
• Demonstrates a sustained pattern of leadership and career development.
• Provides objective credentials for an otherwise largely-subjective experience.
• Allows the individual to transfer his or her mentoring experience to a new context, job or professional program.
• Exemplifies success: senior mentors use their certification path as a model and guide for their mentees.
• Documents progression of growth over time, potentially through formal certification levels: Regular, Advanced, Master, and Distinguished.

What Certified Mentors Say

Eileen Brewer (Director, Security Appliance Team, at Symantec – California, USA – Advanced Certified Mentor):

“I believe the certification helps validate my mentoring experience so I am a more viable mentor candidate within corporate mentoring programs. It helps reassure the mentee that his/her mentor has some experience with mentoring and will take the opportunity seriously and provide good guidance.”

Mercy Sosanya (Chief Executive Officer, at NutriHeal Integrated Concept – Bauchi, Nigeria):

“I really want to appreciate you for this huge opportunity you made available to me. I am really grateful. I also want to thank you for your time and efforts towards making this certification a reality. Your commitment to the whole process was very inspiring.  Two very important things I have learned from you are your attention to detail and the speed with which you responded to mails. I hope to be able to emulate these as much as possible.  Once more, thank you for welcoming me into Mentoring Standard’s Honor Roll. I am so overwhelmed!”

Larissa Brown Shapiro (Sr. Engineering Program Manager, at Mozilla – California, USA):

“Having a professional quality certification brings a level of credibility to my mentoring experience which has been very helpful – in particular when offering training about mentoring at a technical conference in my field. Not only did it help me to be very specific about successful mentoring criteria, multiple colleagues are now interested in developing their skills and getting certified as well.”

Anjaly Austry Joseph (Senior Manager, Development, at Symantec – California, USA):

“Being a mentor has helped me learn and grow with my mentee in their professional life and had a chance to inspire somebody. It also helps me interact better at various levels. Most of the companies do have mentoring culture albeit on a low profile. Would like it be used more so that many can gain, there is no age to either be a mentor or a mentee as we continuously learn.  This certification helps me take the mentoring step more boldly and getting engaged in different forums where I would otherwise need to explain. Garnering the mentoring culture within my company using this certification makes it more easy.”

Kenza Khomsi (Meteorologist Engineer, Direction de la Météorologie Nationale – Casablanca, Morocco – Advanced Certified Mentor):

“While preparing for the certificate, I had the opportunity to identify my skills, gather them and recognize how I succeeded to use them to help others with their personal and professional issues. It was the first time had I stopped to do accounts. I was pleasantly surprised and proud of what I was able to offer to my family, friends, students and I felt so excited to do more. I got the certificate! I returned to my dear Morocco and already launched two mentorship programs.”

Naira Ayrapetyan (Senior Maintenance Engineer, Petronas Carigali – Ashgabat, Turkmenistan – Advanced Certified Mentor):

“Straight after I came back to Turkmenistan from the Silicon Valley, I sent all my certificates for the participation: in TechWomen Program from the United States Department of State, Symantec, Agile Learning Labs, including my Professional Mentorship certificate and the supporting letter provided by you, to my Management and Human Resources Department – and it worked out! After serving the Company for the last 10 years, I got my first promotion to the higher level of qualification for technical staff. I have now been recognized as a Leader, potential Manager, and Top Professional in the Maintenance Engineering Department in Petronas Turkmenistan. My professional experience is better recognized because it was recognized in the Silicon Valley and I was given a professional mentorship certificate. I have been promoted and highly paid for my valuable experience. This motivates me to drive work through professional excellence in any job I do and will be doing so in the future. As a 2015 TechWomen Fellow, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the US Government, TechWomen Program Organizing Committee Members, and to you Katy! You are doing great job and you help us to prove the world that we are professional female Leaders!”

What Certification Means

Three Qualities

Mentoring Standard certifies mentors from around the world who can prove they hold the following three qualities:

1. Significant Mentoring History.
2. Good Reputation.
3. Respectable Professional Experience.

Certification Levels

Mentoring Standard offers four certification levels to recognize and celebrate extraordinary accomplishment as a mentor. Each level demonstrates a cumulative, successful long-term personal and professional investment in mentoring.

1. Regular (valid for 3 years).
2. Advanced (valid for 3 years).
3. Master (valid for 3 years).
4. Distinguished: Lifetime Achievement Award (Permanent – No limit).

The Challenge

You love mentoring, have participated in formal and informal programs, and get so much out of it and…

• • …you want a way to tell your boss about your passion and skill in helping others to achieve their goals – to expand your own job potential.
  • …you want to move up in your career and you need to demonstrate your leadership and people management skills based on what you have already accomplished as a mentor.
  • …you plan to change tracks, use more of your mentoring skills and experience in your professional life, and show what you can do in a new area.

Certification can help.

The Solution

Mentors become certified to acknowledge and build on their deep experience and commitment. Mentors are people any good manager wants on the team.

If this sounds like you, contact us and we’ll get the conversation started about how you can become a certified mentor.

Regular-level Process Overview

Once you start the certification process, you will be provided with an access password. Then, follow these steps. The application form should take about 30 minutes to complete, once you have collected the information you want to submit.  One up-front fee covers a three year certification period.  Contact us to start the process, or for information about a needs-based sliding scale for certification fees.