Mentoring may be defined by some as a subjective process bound by the time, place and content of the activity (Hall, 2003). However, mentoring interventions follow a prescribed path of building rapport, direction setting, progress making and finally moving on. Evaluating the effective use of mentoring is problematic because of its diverse area of application. There is no standardised method of mentoring or to evaluate its effectiveness except through goal achievement. If the mentee’s goal is not a recognised objective, qualification or learning outcome then recording and evaluating success becomes problematic. Developments in soft skills, such as, inter-personal, organisational and personal skills are even harder to quantify, yet they are recognised products of successful mentoring. Soft skills development can be evidenced by the use of the SOUL Record (Butcher, et al., 2006). The SOUL Record is a package of questionnaires and worksheets that evidence soft outcomes (soft skills) and graphically illustrates progression. The East Mentoring Forum would like to evaluate the effectiveness of their mentoring interventions and asked The Research Centre to evaluate the appropriateness of using the SOUL Record for this purpose and evaluate its ability to highlight good practice within mentoring.

Thirty mentors, ten each from the mentoring streams of education, business and community mentoring volunteered to take part in the study. The mentors received in-depth training in the use of the SOUL Record and completed a questionnaire investigating their attitudes towards using a soft outcomes measure and how they thought it could be used within their mentoring intervention. Over the following six week period the mentors applied the SOUL Record within their activities. The experience of using the SOUL Record and the mentor’s evaluation of its appropriateness to mentoring were recorded at feedback sessions through a questionnaire and informal group discussions.

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