ITP Techblog

Calling all potential mentors! It's taken a little longer than hoped to get our redesigned mentoring programme up and running but it's exciting to have launched the first phase, with a call for mentors this week. The programme is significantly streamlined now and we believe will form a core part of ITP membership going forward. We've called for mentors and would love you to get involved.

Also, ITP face-to-face networking events are back... Hooray! Plus we say a big welcome! to 5 new Corporate Partners this month, our Accreditations Board met this week to progress a bunch of accreditation activities, get your ITP gear now and don't forget our AGM is coming up in a couple of weeks.

Want to help others get ahead?

This week ITP launched the first phase of the redesigned ITP Mentoring Programme, with an initial call for Mentors.

The ITP Mentoring Programme continues to be built around professional development or career-focused mentoring - helping IT professionals set clear career goals and objectives, understand that they have the ability to achieve these, and putting in place a plan to do it. 

If you haven't been involved in mentoring before - as either a mentor or a mentee - don't be shy - this programme is for you. The programme has been designed to scale and we see it as a core part of professional growth.

The Programme is also completely free for non-concession ITP members. One key difference is that the new programme will be free for Mentees too. Note that non-concession means student members aren't currently eligible, but we are looking at other options to provide career guidance to students.

Once matched with a Mentee, Mentors can expect to meet once a month (for approximately an hour) over the 12 month period. This can be in-person of via a videocall. Mentoring can be an incredibly rewarding experience, with Mentors often getting as much out of the relationship as those they are mentoring.

We've had a bunch of mentors sign up over the last couple of days, which is brilliant. If you're interested in being a mentor, do sign up. We then have an induction workshop (live online) and other onboarding - you're well supported.

Find out more or sign up as a mentor

 

ITP networking events are back! 

We've been monitoring the broader situation around Covid-19 from the context of when it's appropriate for ITP to provide face-to-face events again, what protections need to be in place, and what events look like going forwards (including both online and face-to-face).

We're really excited to say that ITP face-to-face events will kick off again from July 1.

The event policy implemented pre-lockdown will remain in place for the moment. This means:

1. We ask that those who meet specified risk categories (recent travel overseas, symptoms consistent with Covid-19, or recent exposure to someone meeting these criteria) not to attend our events.
2. We're ensuring that hand sanitiser is present at the entrance and available to all attendees at all ITP events.
3. We're carefully tracking attendance at our events to assist in the case of an outbreak.

We're excited to be welcoming our members and others back to networking and other face-to-face events, but you can also rest assured that we'll be taking reasonable precautions. 

Most of our branches are busy working on the event schedule for the next few months, so keep an eye out on the ITP site for details soon!

Alongside face-to-face events we'll also be continuing our Thursday Live online webinar series and have some others in the works as well - more on that later.

 

New ITP Corporate Partners

ITP has a Corporate Partner Programme made up of organisations who support our objectives to improve professional practice in tech, and to give their staff lower-cost access to some of ITP's activities and resources.

We're pleased to welcome the following new Corporate Partners this month:

• Learner Me
• 3DHB (made up of Wairarapa, Hutt Valley and Capital and Coast DHBs)
• The IT Psychiatrist
• Kāinga Ora
• Workbridge Inc

Times are certainly tough for many out there, but it's great that these organisations, plus the vast majority of existing partners who have chosen to renew their partnership this year, still see professional practice as a core priority. Thanks, and we really look forward to continuing to work with you.

You can see the full list of ITP Partners here, or find out more about the programme here.

 

Accreditations Board Meeting 

The Accreditations Board met this week, and it's great to see a heap of accreditation activity happening at the moment.

As you may be aware, ITP accredits tertiary tech-related degrees on behalf of industry, identifying and recognising programmes which provide the best pathway into our profession. This uses the Seoul Accord criteria, an internationally agreed set of best-practice criteria used around the world.

We can now confirm that programmes which were due to expire this year have now been automatically extended due to Covid-19 and our inability to undertake panel visits. We'll be contacting individual institutions impacted shortly.

It's also great that we've elected to re-commence accreditation visits for institutions keen to proceed, subject to Level 1 (or below) remaining in place.

Also great to see a good pipeline of institutions looking to have their degree programmes accredited. If your institution provides tech-related degrees and we're not already talking about accreditation, drop us a line at [email protected].

You can see the list of currently accredited degree programmes here. 

 

Get your ITP gear

As we return to "normalcy" and head back out into the world, you may have noticed the seasons have changed, it's quite a bit colder out there and maybe it's time to update the winter wardrobe…

Now is the perfect time to head over to the ITP store and grab yourself some sleek, warm and practical items for winter. These customizable items come in a variety of sleek and simple designs and are perfect for work, networking or casualwear.

The official ITP store has a whole bunch of professional and casual clothing options, some which can be co-branded with your company. It's a great opportunity to show that you don't just "do IT" - you're also serious about professional practice. 

Pop on over to shop.itp.nz to check it out.

 

ITP Annual General Meeting

Lastly, just a quick reminder to ITP members that our Annual General Meeting will be held online this year, at 4:00pm on 25th June 2020. Any ITP member may attend the AGM.

Find out more here