Mentoring
The RANZCP Mentoring Program is open to all trainees (Associate members), early career psychiatrists (up to three years post-Fellowship) and selected partial comparability SIMG candidates across both Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Eligible applicants selected to take part are paired with an experienced College Fellow or Affiliate member, your mentor. It is expected you will meet with your mentoring partner monthly, from April - December.
As a mentee you receive:
- access to supportive senior Fellows and Affiliate members outside of your immediate health service, workplace, or local work area
- encouragement from senior College members
- career guidance and advice
- access to new professional relationships and networks
- health and wellbeing peer support.
Places in the program are capped and will continue to be reviewed in future years.
Mentoring versus supervision
Mentoring is a personal and professional support system. It is different from, yet complementary to supervision. It exists outside of the usual performance reporting lines.
It is also distinct from coaching, which involves specific assistance towards a particular goal, for example passing an exam.
How to apply
Applications for the 2025 Mentoring Program have closed. For more information or to be notified when applications open again, contact mentoring@ranzcp.org.
Become a mentor
All Fellows and Affiliate members of the College can apply to be part of the Program. As a mentor, you can offer trainees and early career psychiatrists non-supervisory support in a confidential, non-judgmental setting.
Being a RANZCP mentor provides you with the opportunity to:
- foster the next generation of psychiatrists
- support those who are interested in a future career in your subspeciality or interest area
- introduce your mentee to other Fellows and Affiliate members
- reflect on your own practice/experience
- claim mentoring as an eligible CPD learning activity (category 4.7: College Activities)
- expand professional development goals
- stay connected or reconnect with College membership services and programs.
Express your interest in mentoring by contacting mentoring@ranzcp.org.
College support
All participants receive:
- an 8-month structured program supported by the College
- facilitated pairing and introductions
- an optional introductory welcome dinner event or webinar
- dedicated resources to set up mentoring partnerships for success
- an opportunity to take part in the evaluation and continuous improvement process
- the chance to expand your networks and build lifelong networks and partnerships.

Mentoring FAQs
What can I offer a mentee?
Mentoring is an important career-based resource that exists outside of structured supervision and training requirements. While many trainees do want to discuss their training, many also want a mentor to help guide them in the next step in their careers. Our early career psychiatrist mentees are especially looking for mentors to assist with future career and family planning as well as achieving work and life balance.
How much time does it involve?
We recommend that mentors and mentees meet for 1–2 hours each month over the 8-month program, but this is something you can agree with your mentee. We take into consideration how much time you have available to mentor each month and look to pair you with a mentee with similar expectations. Around 3 hours' training and preparation time is required for mentors, with all materials and resources provided by the College.
How are we paired?
We complete a detailed process and every mentoring pairing partnership is carefully considered. Whilst we do ask for a lot of information from you when you apply, it does help us to make the best possible match with an appropriate mentee. We check for potential conflicts of interest, and give both the proposed mentor and mentee the opportunity to review the proposed partnership before we introduce them. We don’t make an introduction if an issue is raised. The program is run by a dedicated College team, with each application and pairing reviewed and supported throughout the program’s duration.
Can I mentor in my subspeciality area?
We complete a detailed process and every mentoring pairing partnership is carefully considered. Whilst we do ask for a lot of information from you when you apply, it does help us to make the best possible match with an appropriate mentee. We check for potential conflicts of interest, and give both the proposed mentor and mentee the opportunity to review the proposed partnership before we introduce them. We don’t make an introduction if an issue is raised. The program is run by a dedicated College team, with each application and pairing reviewed and supported throughout the program’s duration.
What is the role of the College?
We facilitate the initial mentoring pairing, provide training and resources, and to offer any support, if needed. The discussions between mentor and mentee are confidential. If you have any concerns for your mentee, or an issue with the partnership, we can assist.
What CPD hours can be claimed?
Mentors can record time spent mentoring under Section 4. Keep a record of your meetings as evidence for claims. Learnit modules completed for the Mentoring Program are automatically recorded on MyCPD.
My mentee hasn’t made contact with me
The RANZCP Mentoring program is mentee led. This means it is the responsibility of the mentee to initiate first contact with their assigned mentor. If you haven’t heard from your mentee, please contact the College mentoring team (mentoring@ranzcp.org). Our staff can then reach out to check if the mentee needs assistance.
My mentee needs additional support, what should I do?
Mentoring is not private psychotherapy. If your mentee is struggling, or you feel they need additional support outside the scope of your mentoring partnership, you can direct them to the Member Wellbeing Support Hub that includes a wide range of supports, information and options that may assist them. If they need coaching or training support, you can contact the College mentoring team (mentoring@ranzcp.org) and we can assist with what additional support they need.
Why do we need to do the Mentoring Partnership agreement?
The Mentoring Handbook is provided to give the mentee and mentor the tools to set up their mentoring partnership to make it as successful as possible. The Mentoring Partnership Agreement (MPA) is an important framework for establishing your goals and setting expectations for the partnership. We encourage you discuss the MPA with your mentoring partner at the beginning of your partnership, and then to take time to review it throughout the program.
Mentoring resources
These webinars provide you with further information to set your mentoring partnership up for success. Webinars are approximately 45 - 50 minutes long.
Mentoring Workshop 2024 webinar recording [member log-in required].
Mentoring Workshop 2023 webinar recording [member log-in required].
E-learning modules
Module 1: Introduction to mentoring [member log-in required].
This module is suitable for any psychiatry Fellow, Affiliate members or trainee interested in mentoring.
Module 2: Mentoring for mentees [member log-in required].
This module explores the role of the mentee in more detail to help you prepare for this role with confidence and focus, and to help you get the most out of the mentoring experience.
Module 3: Being an effective mentor [member log-in required].
This module explores the role of the mentor in more detail to help you prepare for this role with confidence and focus, and to help you get the most out of the mentoring experience.
Contact
mentoring@ranzcp.org or 1800 337 448 (calling from Australia) or 0800 443 827 (calling from Aotearoa New Zealand).
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists has previously received Australian Government funding under the Specialist Training Program (STP) to deliver a component of this mentoring program.
