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ACCA Applied Knowledge · Business and Technology · Competence frameworks and personal development

Priya has just been promoted to team leader. She is given a mentor, a senior manager from another department, who meets her monthly to discuss career options and share experience. Which feature most clearly distinguishes mentoring from formal on-the-job coaching?

Mentoring is usually a broader, longer-term developmental relationship covering career and personal growth, often with someone outside the line management chain. Coaching, by contrast, tends to concentrate on specific task skills, so the other options mis-describe mentoring.

  1. AMentoring focuses on specific task skills and is led by the line manager
  2. BMentoring is usually a broader, longer-term developmental relationship not necessarily with the line managerCorrect
  3. CMentoring always results in a formal qualification
  4. DMentoring is only used for external trainees

Explanation

Mentoring is typically a longer-term, broad relationship covering career and personal development, often with someone outside the direct reporting line. Coaching tends to focus on specific skills or tasks, often by the line manager. Mentoring does not necessarily lead to a qualification and is not limited to external trainees.

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