Youth Mentoring

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This module is for extension practitioners who want to use electronic approaches to complement their physical face-to-face activities and paper-based approaches. This module will help you understand how electronic approaches can benefit both you and your farmers. It outlines what is involved and the advantages and disadvantages of several e-tools that you can use straight away.

These e-extension tools are especially helpful in overcoming the limits of physical distancing imposed as a result of COVID-19. This module has ideas and suggestions that will help you to embrace new and unfamiliar technologies, and includes guidelines and case studies that give examples of how these technologies have been used in various situations. The module covers both low-tech and high-tech solutions, so if you do not have stable internet connectivity, there is still something here that will be useful to you.

Overview

Module outcomes

After completing this module, you will be able to:

  1. Understand mentorship in the context of Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) for extensionists.
  2. Design, implement and evaluate a mentoring programme to mentor individuals and groups for AIS.
  3. Employ the appropriate mentoring approach(es) and tools to reflect a positive youth development framework.

Click on the button below to start the module:

Introduction

Study unit 1: Introduction - Youth mentoring for AIS

Study unit outcomes

After completing this study unit, you should be able to:

  • Define mentor, mentee, and mentorship roles in the mentorship within a positive youth development lens.
  • Explore mentoring approaches and attributes of youth development.
  • Review differences between mentoring and coaching, the advantages, and differences between and relevance for extensionists for AIS context.

Study unit overview

A mentorship is a relationship where an experienced or more knowledgeable person guides an inexperienced or less knowledgeable person. The mentor may be older or younger than the mentee as long as they have a certain area of expertise.

Click on the button below to start the lesson for Study Unit 1:

Study unit 1

Click the button below to download the Study Unit 1 Self Test. Note: This test can be used to determine how well you know the content. It is for your own purpose and will not be marked.

Study Unit 1 Self Test

Study unit 2: Mentor-mentee relationships, skills and competencies for AIS

Study unit outcomes

After completing this study unit, you should be able to:

  • Apply your skills and competencies as a mentor for AIS
  • Plan and initiate a mentoring relationship
  • Build an effective mentoring relationship as an extensionist
  • Reflect on mentorship for your role as an extensionist for AIS

Study unit overview

This unit looks at the qualities of the mentoring relationship needed for a successful mentoring programme. Mentoring requires the mentor and mentee to reflect, highlight and record their situations to make sure the programme is successful. While the suggestions can be used as guidelines, the mentoring relationship should always be contextualized. This unit will help you become a mentor and improve your ability to perform a role as a “new extensionist”. This will help your mentees implement agricultural innovations.

Several people participate in a mentorship relationship, and it can be between individuals or with a group. A mentorship involves deliberately building a potentially mutual relationship, even though it appears that it is more for the benefit to the mentee. This may not necessarily be the case for EAS in AIS. The new extensionist paper defines the new position that extensionists find themselves in due to the paradigm that is AIS.

Extension and Advisory Services (EAS): Agricultural extension was previously described as the process of linking farmers to research, technologies and knowledge needed for production. This has recently expanded to a broader range of activities including organization, stakeholder management and has now included a diverse range of disciplines that directly affect the farmer outside the scope of production.

Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) - “An innovation system is defined as a network of organisations, enterprises, and individuals focused on bringing new products, processes and forms of organisations into economic use, together with the institutions and policies that affect their behaviour and performance”- GFRAS

The agricultural innovation system therefore contains several aspects including building of knowledge, adaptation of the knowledge and use of the knowledge.

Click on the button below to start the lesson for Study Unit 2:

Study unit 2

Click the button below to download the Study Unit 2 Self Test. Note: This test can be used to determine how well you know the content. It is for your own purpose and will not be marked.

Study Unit 2 Self Test

Study unit 3: Design and implement an EAS mentoring programme for AIS

Study unit outcomes

After completing this study unit, you should be able to:

  • Outline the steps needed to successfully implement a mentoring programme
  • Identify and pair mentors and mentees
  • Plan and execute a mentoring programme and mentoring activities
  • Monitor, evaluate and celebrate a mentoring programme within AIS

Study unit overview

According to the GFRAS new extensionist position paper, extensionists find themselves in new and expanding roles beyond the production advisory role, as extensionists now must adapt to various emergent innovations. Within the Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS), extensionists interact with and bring together various stakeholders. This calls for extensionists to learn different knowledge sets. Previously in this module, you learnt about the role of mentorship in AIS where the EAS extensionist fits in. Taking this into consideration, and the dynamics involved in when individuals build relationships, it is necessary to plan and establish mentoring relationships with care. This unit will point out practical steps towards achieving a mentoring programme.

Click on the button below to start the lesson for Study Unit 3:

Study unit 3

Click the button below to download the Study Unit 3 Self Test. Note: This test can be used to determine how well you know the content. It is for your own purpose and will not be marked.

Study Unit 3 Self Test

Study unit 4: Mentoring in practice

Study unit outcomes

After completing this study unit, you should be able to:

  • Understand the use of digital agriculture for extension and advisory services.
  • Define your position as an extensionist for mentoring with technology for AIS.
  • Draw lessons to use best ‘digital’ practices for AIS mentorship.

Study unit overview

In this unit, you will learn about the digitalization of agriculture and the development of digital advisory services (DAS). It will highlight the specific aspects of the DAS and what this looks like for the extensionist. This unit session will examine the relevance of mentoring for AIS and DAS, as a component of the new paradigms. It is meant to guide the extensionist and provide insight on DAS approaches towards DAS and uptake of new technology.

Click on the button below to start the lesson for Study Unit 4:

Study unit 4

Click the button below to download the Study Unit 4 Self Test. Note: This test can be used to determine how well you know the content. It is for your own purpose and will not be marked.

Study Unit 4 Self Test