From “just-in-case” to “just-in-time” mentor training
By Jean Rhodes
One of my favorite old Saturday Night Live skits was the Five-Minute University. The idea is that most of college courses fill students with a ton of information, just-in-case it might be helpful some day. In the skit, Father Guido’s Five-Minute University aimed to teach students in five minutes “what the average college graduate remembers five years after he or she is out of school.” In Spanish, students would learn ¿Como esta usted? and muy bien. In economics, students would learn supply and demand. Of course, as a college professor, I’d like to think that instruction affects students’ thinking and provides new reference points. But it certainly isn’t customized to each student’s immediate circumstances or future needs.
Mentor trainings follow this general “just-in-case” approach as well. A typical pre-match training covers everything from rules, safety and relationship building, to the needs of special populations. Mentors learn great stuff upfront, just-in-case. Yet because each match is different, only a fraction of what is learned in prematch trainings ever gets put to use. Think of prematch trainings like sitting through a series of IKEA instructions or recipes. Until we’re faced with actually building the MALM dresser or making the gazpacho, we’re unlikely to tune in.
A more useful training framework may be akin to apprenticeships and on-the-job training. After the basic orientation, the more specific trainings are delivered “just-in-time”–right when the mentor needs them. Just in time training (JITT) is defined as “on-demand training experiences that only include what is necessary, when it is necessary, to promote competent service delivery” (McQuillin et al., 2019, p. 356). Through training platforms like MentorPRO Academy, mentors could receive JTTT that reflects the particular circumstances of their match.
In their 2019 article, “Task-Shifting and Just-in-Time Training: A Promising Approach for Expanding Child Mental Health Services,” McQuillin and colleagues present a compelling case for this just-in-time training (JITT) approach, particularly as it applies to supporting youth mental health. Through longitudinal work, they developed and evaluated a brief school-based mentoring program for underperforming middle school students in low-resource urban environments. In doing so, the researchers shifted counseling and academic intervention tasks from school mental health professionals to volunteer undergraduate mentors. Through an iterative process of development and evaluation, they refined their approach to incorporate JITT principles. Initial attempts to shift tasks to mentors were unsuccessful, with null or even harmful effects on student outcomes. However, by revising their training approach to include JITT elements, the researchers saw significant improvements. Mentors reported greater value in the training, increased use of procedural manuals, and stronger perceptions of program support. Most importantly, a randomized controlled trial of the revised program showed significant reductions in school misconduct, increases in math grades, and improved life satisfaction among mentored students compared to controls.
So rather than a Five-Minute Mentor University, let’s build a robust science around JITT. To do so, we need to establish consensus practice competencies, test training models in low-risk environments, and examine the optimal balance and timing of pre-service and in-service training.
