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Straight-talk answers to questions we get a lot.
Here are questions we often field about our training courses, evaluation services and general mentoring issues. See if your question is in the list. If not, please feel free to call us at 919-493-7700 or email us at mentoringcentral@irtinc.us. We’d love to hear from you.
General Questions
Yes. The Mentoring Central team consists of research and practice mentoring experts, who publish empirical findings in the top peer-reviewed scientific journals and have cutting edge knowledge of research design issues, selection of measures to assess youth outcomes and mentoring implementation, handling of missing data, and statistical analyses.
When we use the term, “students”, we mean the individuals enrolled in our online training courses. Our students may be staff, mentors, or youth who are mentees.
Yes. The Mentoring Central team can provide both web-based and in-person training as well as information resources through consultation to your program. Please contact us to discuss your needs and pricing.
Currently, our web-based training courses are only available in English. Upon request, we can work with mentoring organizations to develop materials in other languages. Please contact us to discuss your needs and pricing.
Approximately once a year, new courses will be released on different topics for different audiences.
Training Courses For Mentors, Mentees and Parents/Caregivers
Visit https://admin.mentoringcentral.net, and log in with your email address and password. The “My Courses” dashboard displays all courses you are enrolled in. Click the “Start” or “Resume” button to begin a course or pick up where you left off.
You will have access to your Mentoring Central courses for one year after your activation date for fully virtually courses and for two years after your activation date for toolkits used when conducting instructor-led training. Enrollment in your courses will expire on the date exactly one (or two) years from the effective date of your purchase.
Yes, you can enroll learners in multiple courses; however, it is best to ask mentors to complete courses one at a time, so they can build upon their knowledge with each course they complete. View our 2023 catalog for Mentoring Central’s suggested timeline for mentor training.
Each web-based course is on-demand and can be taken at any time. Depending on the course, most participants finish a course in about an hour to an hour and a half.
The courses are divided into small lessons to provide natural break points. Participants proceed at their own pace — picking it up and putting it down, whenever is convenient. The system saves progress and allows users to start where they left off.
Administrators can see what lessons are completed, what lessons are in process, and what lessons have not yet begun.
Yes. You may begin a course and stop it at any time within the subscription year. You can return to it at anytime and begin where you left off.
Yes. Once participants are enrolled in a course, they may take the course as often as they like during the subscription year. However, only one participant can take the course. Each purchase of a course is designed for use by one person.
No. The terms and conditions of the contract assign the use of a course to an individual person and uses may not be shared.
Click on the Lost password link. Follow the directions for resetting your password. You will receive an email with a temporary password, which can be used to log in to Mentoring Central and then change your password.
If you are taking a course through Mentoring Central as a requirement of your mentoring program, then contact your Match Support Specialist or the case manager who enrolled you in the course.
If you are an individual taking a course through Mentoring Central, then please send an email to mentoringcentral@irtinc.us. We try to respond to all requests by the next business day.
Call us at 919-493-7700 between 9am — 5pm EST
The basic requirements to access our web-based training courses are a computer with speakers and web access. Performance varies depending upon the computer power and internet connection speeds. The following are recommended requirements:
Computer
Microsoft Windows 2000 or higher, with Intel Pentium II 450 MHz and 256MB of RAM, OR
Macintosh PowerPC® G3 500MHz or Intel Core Duo 1.33GHz and 256MB of RAM, OR
Linux 800 MHz with 512MB of RAM, 128MB of graphics memory
Display resolution of 1024 x 768 (minimum)
Speakers or Headphones
Adobe Flash Player version 10 or higher
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Web Access
Broadband internet connection (1.5 Mbps or faster recommended)
Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher, OR
Firefox 1.5 or higher, OR
Opera 6 or higher, OR
Other modern web browser
EQUIP
To begin completing the EQUIP National Standards Review, contact Mentoring Central by email at mentoringcentral@irtinc.us or phone 919-493-7700. Once we have discussed with you the needs of your program, you can begin.
Your Certified External Reviewer has been trained and certified in conducting the EQUIP National Standards Review. This person will guide you through the process of completing the self-assessment and will conduct the external review of your program. This person will also help develop a quality improvement plan for your program.
Your data are stored on a secure, password-protected server. Only iRT, your program, and your Certified External Reviewer will have access to your data.
It is perfectly acceptable if you do not have supporting documentation for all of your program practices. By engaging in the EQUIP/National Standards Review, you will identify what types of documentation you need to develop for your program. Your Certified External Reviewer will work with you to make a plan for developing the additional materials you need for your program.
No, you do not need to complete the self-assessment in one sitting. The EQUIP system will automatically save your responses to a set of questions when you hit the “Next”, “Save”, or “Previous” buttons, so your responses will appear when you next login.
You can upload Microsoft Word Documents, Microsoft Excel Documents, Text Files, Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations, and PDF documents. You can also enter a website address as a form of documentation.
To best assess whether your program is fully meeting the benchmarks and enhancements described in the EEPM, you will need to respond to all relevant questions.
Once you have responded to all items in the Self-Assessment, you will be directed to the “Certify and Submit” page. This page instructs you to review your completed assessment, certify that it is correct, and submit the assessment for review.
No, you cannot make edits to your self-assessment after you click the “Submit” button. It is important to review your self-assessment before submitting it. However, if you have new information, or if practices at your program have changed since you submitted your assessments, contact your Technical Assistance provider for further guidance.
Yes. Your Technical Assistance provider will send you a *Self-Assessment Report* which will include your responses to the self-assessment questions.
We estimate that it will take Technical Assistance Providers 40 hours to fully review a completed Self-Assessment. Contact your Technical Assistance provider if you would like to learn the status of your review or to establish a communication plan.
