Fewer than half of AAT members have ever received mentoring during their career, according to a new study from AAT. This is well below the industry average. More worryingly, just 7% of AAT members report that their organisation runs a formal mentoring programme. This was lower than any other industry, and in stark contrast to the 28% of finance and accounting workers reporting the same thing.

However, among AAT members there is a great deal of enthusiasm for mentoring schemes. Some 42% of members want to become a mentor, just behind the 43% from all finance and accounting workers.

Similarly there is strong appetite from members for their organisation to implement formal mentoring. Some 37% of AAT support the idea.

AAT CEO, Mark Farrar, said: “A company is only ever as good as the sum of its parts – which is why employers should be seeking to implement effective mentoring schemes that help to invest in staff and impact on their career pathways.”