The Intellectual Output 4, based upon the results of IO3 is a key element of the procedure passing from the mentor trainings and/or validation of prior learning and experience to the ISO compliant mentor certification. Once the mentor assessment criteria are established the partners can start the certification scheme development.

MentorCert logoThe IO leader P6, EFCoCert splits these activities into two parts:

  • Development of standardisation guidelines. These ISO compatible guidelines are to be applied for the certification scheme development and explain the rules and procedures applicable to the certification scheme manual development.
  • Mentor certification scheme manual development in compliance with ISO 17 024. It is planned to describe the whole competence assessment process, and to contain requirements the certification bodies and examiners have to respect to be able to proceed to certification of mentors. ISO 17 024 stipulates principles and requirements for a certification body and includes the development and maintenance rules of the certification scheme. These standards ensure that certification bodies can exploit the certification scheme after the project and can operate in a consistent, comparable and reliable manner worldwide. The results take the form a "ready-to-go" tool to allow the mentor having skills that translate across national lines. This is the main innovation given by IO4.

For this IO the establishment of an international Expert Committee is absolutely necessary and is the real token of transferability of the certification scheme.
The Expert Committee is to be composed of a minimum of 28 interested stakeholders from at least 14 European countries. (These standards proved to be feasible in previous projects and to realise them is an important indicator of efficiency.)
This committee has a quality control role in the project. The IO leaders have to send all the documents, drafts prepared by the partners to the members of this committee asking for their comments, modification proposals. In a later stage, after the project, this committee is to help work out the business model necessary for the long term exploitation and sustainability of the results.
The fact that accredited certification bodies are invited into the committee can facilitate the commercialisation of the certification scheme. This aims to ensure a large European impact of the results.


Work package: 
Start Date: 01-11-2017     End Date: 31-01-2020     Languages: English

Completed: IO4 - Mentor certification scheme manual

The output has been developed under the leadership of EFCoCert (S. Jacquemart initially, and then Dr D. Blanc).
All partners participated through various activities: reviewing and commenting the successive drafts, pilot testing, and dissemination.
A highly representative (44 experts, 11 countries, 3 continents) scheme Expert Committee has been established and involved in 3 commenting rounds on the successive versions of the Mentor competence certification scheme.

The development process, as described in the application, has been structured around the following key ISO compliant dispositions or rules:
- ISO compliant standardization guidelines, established at the beginning of the project and applied to the entire development of the competence certification scheme;
- Scheme Expert Committee gathering representative of all relevant stakeholders;
- Successive drafts (3 in total) of the certification scheme established based on the other IOs’ outcomes and submitted to the Expert Committee for reviewing and commenting;
- Pilot testing and adjustments.

As planned within the application, following activities have been deployed to develop the output 4:
- O1/A6 – Setting up an Expert Committee
- O4/A1 - Standardisation guidelines for the scheme development
- O4/A2 - Preparation of a working draft of the mentor certification scheme
- O4/A3 - Expert Committee review and comments of the 3 successive drafts
- O4/A4 - Further development of the draft for approval within transnational project’s meetings
- O4/A5 - Final version of the mentor certification scheme

The outcomes of the successive commenting rounds on the drafts of the competence certification scheme are quite representative of the relevance of the developed scheme.
The number of received comments illustrate this perfectly:
- Draft Standard stage: 178 comments
- Final Draft Standard stage: 35 comments
- Pilot testing: 4 comments

This means that the piloted scheme was mature at the stage it was used for pilot testing, and that the successive commenting rounds enabled to reach a sound and robust consensus.
Experts also sent laudatory general comments on the Business Mentor scheme.
Such comments acknowledge both the value of the project’s management, objectives and outcomes and EFCoCert’s professionalism and expertise in applying ISO standardization best practices to the development of competence certification schemes.

The delivered EU WBL Mentor competence certification scheme, ready to be used by certification bodies for persons in compliance with ISO 17024 requirements, consists of the following normative documents (consistent with the application’s commitment):
- EU Business Mentor 2000: Competence Certification Scheme – Vocabulary
- EU Business Mentor 2001: Competence Certification Scheme – Requirements
- EU Business Mentor 2021: Competence Certification Scheme – Requirements for certification bodies

These documents can be found below:

O4-Mentor certification scheme manual

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MentorCert_IO4-EU Business Mentor 2000

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Date added: 17-03-2023
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MentorCert_IO4-EU Business Mentor 2001

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Date added: 17-03-2023
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MentorCert_IO4-EU Business Mentor 2021

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Date added: 17-03-2023