Mentoring and Advisory Services

Business mentors and advisors with the capacity to develop management and business capability include a wide range of people with different skills and professions, ranging from specialist to general advisors. 

To get the best out of business advice, consumers need to know when they should seek advice and what level of expertise they need. Those requirements then need to be matched with an understanding of the expertise and quality assurance offered by different kinds of business advisor.

The Partnership believes that there are a number of real or potential barriers to businesses investing in advisory services. These include:

• lack of adequate information about types and benefits of advisory services 
  cost of seeking advice; 
• low confidence in advisors and the difficulty of monitoring the quality of the advice; and
• lack of awareness within a business that it actually needs advice.

Minimising these barriers would promote demand for, and investment in, advisory services.  The Mentoring and Advisory Services Working Group is progressing a number of initiatives that aim to:

• raise market awareness/understanding of advisory services overall (for example through working for improved education/training and regulatory settings); 
• assist enterprises to make informed decisions about their advisory requirements; and
• promote improved understanding amongst enterprises and advisors of the strengths and limitations of different types of advisory services.