Mentoring can be viewed across a continuum.

At one end is the conceptualisation of mentoring as sponsorship, where traditionally a senior staff member mentors a more junior mentee to assist in his or her career. It is based on a relationship that is one-way, with unequal power and no expectation that the mentor learns from the mentee (de Vries, 2011; Ehrich, 2008).

At the other end of the continuum, mentoring is seen as developmental, ‘has learning as its focus and is based on power sharing where both parties (i.e. mentors and mentees) are seen to benefit from the experience’ (Ehrich, 2008 p.32).