Cross Institution Mentoring Scheme for Technical Professionals
CIMS-T | Specialist mentoring for techniciansNow in it’s third year, CIMS-T is a unique mentoring initiative, developed by technicians, for technicians.
Learn from an experienced technical professional, who understands your role and can help you achieve your career goals.
Programme overview
Learn from expert technical professionals who understand your role, challenges and opportunities through the specialist technician-led mentoring.
Who is it for?
Technicians, technical specialists, aspiring and current technical managers of all levels. Must be employed at at UK university or research institute.
Cost
Free to those who meet the selection criteria.
This is a technician-led initiative, all time is voluntary.
What is mentoring?
Mentoring allows one person (the mentor) to share knowledge, skills, information, advice and perspective, to support another person (the mentee), in their professional role.
Time commitment
One hour meetings every month or six weeks within an academic year, or until the mentoring objective is completed. Mentoring relationships typically last six months, some 12 months+.
Delivery format
Online meetings between the mentor and mentee. Face-to-face is optional for pairings and groups who choose that approach.
“I’ve previously had mentors from within my institution, but they have been academic staff who didn’t understand the complexities of being a technician.”
2024 CIMS-T participant (mentee)
Course content
Participants are required to join the Introduction to Mentoring workshop, 16 September 2026 at 10am (mentors) and 11am (mentees) and a reflection meeting at the end of the programme.
Mentoring meetings will be arranged a time to suit the mentor and mentee. Typically, meetings last for an hour every month or six weeks.
Eligibility and selection criteria
CIMS-T is open to technical professionals (specialist or generalist) and technical managers at any UK higher education or research institute.
You can be a technician, technical specialists, aspiring and current technical manager at any level or discipline.
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes will be agreed between the individual mentees and mentors at the start of the programme.
Mentees report having gained skills in:
• Confidence
• Networking
• Navigating pathways towards their career goals.
Mentors report:
• Having gained confidence
• Feeling positive about giving back
• Having improved their questioning and listening skills
Benefits of the programme
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Receive specialist mentoring from a technical expert with experience in your relevant field.
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The opportunity to be mentored on a wide range of technical and managerial skills, as well as technical leadership and pathways to career progression.
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Last year, people from over 30 universities and research institutions took part. Join this large network, ask questions and share ideas on the dedicated CIMS-T Teams platform.
The Cross Institutional Mentoring Scheme (CIMS-T) for Technical Professionals is the first technician-led initiative of its kind that aims to create meaningful mentoring relationships to enhance career development, skills and personal growth.
Successful key dates and programme schedule
| Date | Activity |
|
23 February 2026 |
Applications open for mentees and registration for mentors. |
|
15 April 2026 (1pm) |
Online information session Q&A: register on Eventbrite here. |
|
18 May 2026 |
Applications close (please submit your applications as early as possible; we may have to close early if we receive a high number of applications). |
| End of June 2026 | Notification of successful pairing matches. |
| 16 September 2026 | Introductory workshop for successful mentees and mentors. |
| September 2026 – February 2027 | Mentoring sessions – Times and frequencies arranged by each pairing |
| February 2027 – March 2027 | Feedback and reflection on learning |
What is mentoring and how can CIMS-T help?
Mentoring is a developmental partnership through which one person (the mentor) shares knowledge, skills, information, advice and perspective, to support another person (the mentee).
Technical professionals tend to be highly specialised, and it may be that an institution has only one technician with the same speciality. This makes finding a mentor with the required level of skills and knowledge challenging. CIMS-T widens the search across institutions to access mentoring support from an abundance of highly skilled and experienced technical staff.
What is CIMS-T?
CIMS-T is a technician-created, UK-wide mentoring scheme for technicians by technicians. The CIMS-T creators are technicians from three midlands universities: Trevor Hardy- University of Birmingham, Dorothea Mangels -University of Warwick and Lisa Bedder- University of Leicester.
In 2025, participants from 42 universities and research institutes took part in the scheme.
How long has CIMS-T been running?
CIMS–T was established in 2023 and ran a pilot cohort in 2024 with 20 mentoring matches. The scheme was originally funded by TALENT and continues to be supported by the UK Institute for Technical Skills & Strategy’s Learning and Development Academy, and the three founding technicians. The 2025 cohort saw 48 mentoring matches made.
What if I apply to take part, but then can no longer be involved?
Workload change and we understand this. Contact us by email enquiries@itss.org.uk and we can arrange for your profile to be kept on file for consideration in future cohorts if your situation changes.
How many places are available on CIMS-T?
We will try to match as many technicians as possible to suitable mentors. We will let you know by end of July 2026 if you have been successfully matched in this mentoring progamme.
What if I don’t get on with my mentor or mentee?
Mentoring is a very personal process, and a lot of the success depends on interpersonal chemistry. If you do not get on with your mentor or mentee, and you don’t feel confident addressing this on your own, please contact the CIMS-T team and we can look at options to help you. Email us at enquiries@itss.org.uk
I am interested in receiving mentoring through CIMS-T, where can I find out more?
There is an online information event on Wednesday 15 April 2026 1pm- 2pm where you can find out more about the programme and ask any questions. Register here
I'm interested in becoming a mentor through CIMS-T, where can I sign up?
We are also looking for mentors to join our register.
Link to Mentor Application – Join our register of available mentors
I would like to be a CIMS-T mentor, but I haven’t done it formally before. Can I volunteer?
Yes absolutely, both first time and experienced mentors are welcome. You need to be a technical professional working within a UK university or research institution.
Are the CIMS-T mentors trained, or will they get additional training?
We will run an introductory session for mentors on Wednesday 16 September 2026, and there are training materials and resources on the CIMS-T Teams site, where you can also ask for support or ideas from the mentoring network.
I mentored someone in the last cohort; do I need to re-register?
Yes please. We have refreshed the registration form each year to make the matching process more streamlined.