TORONTO — After 16 years of connecting travel professionals with industry mentors in Australia and later New Zealand, the Travel Industry Mentor Experience (TIME) has officially arrived in Canada, launching its first Canadian cohort with three mentor-mentee pairings.

The not-for-profit mentorship program marked the Canadian launch at an industry event in Toronto, where Penny Spencer, Chair and Founder of TIME Canada joined Canadian committee members, mentors, mentees and industry professionals to introduce the program and explain how companies and individuals can get involved.

BUILDING LONG-TERM CAREERS

For Penny, the idea for TIME began with a simple observation: talented people were entering the travel industry but did not always know how to turn a job into a long-term career.

“I really felt that the travel industry needed a mentor program because we’re such a tight industry,” she said. “But a lot of people get to a certain point in their career, three or four years into their career, and are like, ‘How do I get to the next level?’ They either don’t, or they leave the industry.”

Retention and professional development became central to TIME’s mission.

The program has since grown to include 500 graduates in Australia and 100 in New Zealand. Having recently celebrated 15 years of TIME, Penny began considering where the organization could go next.

“I know quite a few people in Canada in the travel industry, and a couple of the mentees that have been through the program in Australia and New Zealand are now here,” she said. “I thought, ‘What’s next for TIME? Let’s go to Canada.’”

CANADA’S FIRST THREE PAIRINGS

TIME Canada is launching with three pairs:

• Kirsten Bellis, Partnerships Manager, North America at Chimu Adventures, has been matched with Sheralyn Berry, Director, Commercial Sales at Destination America. 
• Alfred Chow, Partnerships & PR Specialist at Explore Worldwide, is paired with Bernadine D’Souza, Leisure & Culinary Travel Specialist/Trainer at Bains Travel. 
• Lisa Elliot, Group Department Manager at Collette, is paired with Katie Olsson, National Account Manager, Canada at Air New Zealand. 

The matching process is intended to go well beyond simply pairing a younger travel professional with someone more senior.

Prospective mentees complete a detailed expression of interest outlining what they hope to accomplish, where they want to take their careers and how they want to grow. Mentors also complete an expression of interest, allowing TIME to match participants based on their objectives and experience.

THE VALUE OF AN OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVE

One of the distinguishing features is that mentors can come from outside the mentee’s own company – something TIME graduate Steve Farrelly, founder of StarPlusOne Consulting, says was particularly valuable during his own experience with the program in Australia.

“A lot of the mentoring programs that we have in the industry today are internal within your own organization,” Farrelly told attendees. “The awesome thing about TIME is that you actually get the opportunity to be paired with someone external of your own business.”

That independent perspective, he said, helped him look beyond his next job title or promotion and consider the bigger trajectory of his career.

“What do I actually want? Where do I want to go and how do I get there? And what are the skills that I need to grow or develop to help advance my career?” he said.

Farrelly summarized his TIME experience around three words: clarity, courage and connection.

Clarity comes from determining where a mentee wants to go rather than simply pursuing the next available position. Courage, he said, comes from being willing to admit where there are gaps in knowledge or experience.

“Mentoring and having someone external of your organization is one of the very few places that you can say, ‘I’m not good at this. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know where I want to go. I need help,’” he said.

The third element – connection – extends beyond the individual mentor and mentee. Farrelly said mentors can introduce mentees to people within their own networks, share lessons from mistakes they have made and open doors that might otherwise take years to find.

FROM MENTEE TO MENTOR

Farrelly’s relationship with TIME eventually came full circle. After participating as a mentee, he went on to mentor another travel professional in Australia and is now helping bring the program to Canada.

“Someone once took the time to invest in me when I was a mentee back in Australia,” he said. “Years later, I had the privilege of being a mentor with someone else, and then somehow today, we get to launch TIME in Canada.”

That cycle of mentees eventually becoming mentors is at the heart of what TIME hopes to establish here.

Penny said mentors frequently discover that the relationship is as valuable for them as it is for the person they are mentoring.

“Most mentors that I talk to when they finish the program say that they got more out of it than they ever expected because they learn as well,” she said. “They learn from their mentee, and they also generally become great friends.”

LOOKING TO GROW THE NETWORK

TIME Canada is now looking to expand that network.

Industry professionals can become mentors and share their experience with the next generation, while mentees can apply for a year of one-to-one guidance. TIME is also seeking financial partners to help fund scholarships and program delivery, as well as in-kind partners able to contribute venues, travel, services or time.

As a not-for-profit organization, partnerships and mentee fees help support the program.

“It’s not for making money. It’s for giving back,” Penny said. “To actually get the program running, we really need partnerships, mentors and mentees.”

The organization is looking across the wider travel industry – including travel, tourism, cruise and aviation – as it builds awareness and its network in Canada.

Edith Beaudoin is the TIME Canada contact for those interested in becoming a mentor or mentee or exploring financial or in-kind partnership opportunities.

For Farrelly, the potential impact reaches beyond the first three pairs unveiled in Toronto. His hope is that members of TIME’s inaugural Canadian cohort will eventually find themselves on the other side of the mentoring relationship.

“Hopefully there is a mentee who goes through the program, and a few years from now, they’ve advanced their career, they’ve improved their life,” he said. “Then potentially they’ll mentor someone. They’ll be making an introduction, opening a door and hopefully changing the career or changing the life of someone else.”

“That, to me, is the real power of mentoring.”

For more information, visit travelindustrymentor.ca.

Lead image caption (from l-r): TIME founder Penny Spencer with inaugural TIME Canada mentees Kirsten Bellis of Chimu Adventures, Lisa Elliot of Collette and Alfred Chow of Explore Worldwide at TIME Canada’s launch event in Toronto