To mark International Mentoring Day (17 January) and National Mentoring Month, CIHT is pleased to announce that we have broadened the CIHT mentoring offer to include options for General Career mentoring alongside our existing Professional Qualification mentoring offer.
Join other savvy professionals just like you at CIHT. We are committed to fulfilling your professional development needs throughout your career
International Mentoring Day is recognised globally as a celebration of the power of mentoring and encourages people to acknowledge the mentors who have supported them and to consider becoming a mentor themselves.
One of the great tools that you can access as a CIHT member, is the CIHT mentoring platform. If you log onto CIHT mentoring now you will find two options for our different mentoring programmes:
The introduction of the new General Mentoring programme, means CIHT members can now register to offer and receive mentoring support focused on their career development, not just professional registration.
This significant expansion of CIHT’s mentoring offer as a member benefit, reflects CIHT’s commitment to professional development, inclusion and support for members at all career stages, wherever they are based.
Members can register as mentors, mentees, or both, and choose which mentoring scheme best suits their goals and aspirations.
You are never too young or too old to be mentored. A good mentor can help keep a career challenging and fulfilling, even for those in the later stages of their career.
No matter where you are in your career, there is always someone who knows more than you, be that an experienced member being reverse mentored by an early career professional, a mentor can broaden your understanding of topics and help you to improve your skills.
A good mentor also can help you move to the next career level or overcome challenges in an existing role by offering alternative viewpoints, ideas, plans and perspectives. The mentee is the final decision-maker, but having a mentor to consult with can give you more confidence in making decisions.
Mentoring offers significant benefits for both mentors and mentees.
1. For mentors, these benefits include developing leadership skills, improving communication and interpersonal skills, gaining fresh perspectives, and the satisfaction that comes from contributing to other members development.
2. For mentees, benefits include clarity on goals, identifying skills gaps, building confidence, expanding their professional networks and accelerating career progression.
A good CIHT career mentor is genuinely committed to supporting the development of others across the highways and transportation profession. Effective mentors are those who listen actively, ask thoughtful questions, and create a supportive environment for honest reflection. Career mentors draw on their professional experience to help mentees navigate career choices, build confidence, and develop the skills needed to progress in a fast‑evolving sector.
Reverse mentors bring valuable insights shaped by their lived experiences from emerging industry trends and new technologies to offer different cultural perspectives or early‑career viewpoints. What makes a strong CIHT mentor is not just seniority but curiosity, openness, and a willingness to share and learn, helping build a more inclusive, skilled and future‑ready profession.
Although any time can be a good time to enter a mentoring relationship, it becomes more meaningful when you have a career goal in mind and/or want to pursue a career challenge or opportunity, such as overcoming a skills gap, clarifying career choices, or achieving a better work-life balance.
The mentoring platform has been designed to make finding, connecting and communicating with a mentor as easy as possible. It is packed with videos, guides, and checklists to guide you through your mentoring journey.
Alongside the tools to help you define and set your mentoring goals, the platform allows the mentee to search for mentors who would be the best match for them in terms of the skills and experience they are looking for. Mentors can choose to accept or decline requests from mentees and can switch their availability for mentoring on and off.
The platform has an inbuilt meeting tool that allows you to arrange meetings, set agendas, record meeting notes, and agree action points and video chat from within the platform.
Working with a mentor helps mentees set goals, stay accountable, and maintain motivation throughout their professional journey.
Ellen Earle, Principal Transport Planner at JNP Group, said: “I have had a great experience with the mentoring platform. Matching with my mentor has accelerated my progress towards professional qualifications but also my general development, and I may not have connected with such an experienced mentor if it wasn’t for the CIHT mentor platform.”
CIHT is hosting a live mentoring webinar on 4 February 2026. Please Book your place now.
The webinar will demonstrate how the mentoring platform works, explain the difference between General Mentoring and Professional Qualification mentoring and demonstrate how to register and create a profile, as well as providing the opportunity for you to ask questions.
For more information on the CIHT Mentoring programme, please visit the CIHT Mentoring web page
Join other savvy professionals just like you at CIHT. We are committed to fulfilling your professional development needs throughout your career
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