Adult Educator Mentorship – What’s It Like?

A good mentor is like gold

If you ever get the chance to have a mentor, treasure it.

I’m not going to go through all the benefits of mentorship – if you’re reading this, you’re sold. It’s about having someone who can guide you through a path that they’ve walked before – and helping with your learning.

Mentorships can be unstructured – finding a person you admire and asking that person to be your mentor. After that, you can consult that person regarding questions you may have. For this sort of mentorship, I meet my mentor infrequently to ask him about career direction and opportunities.

I also had the chance to attend a structured mentorship programme, which is what this post is about.

The AE Mentorship Programme.

Fun fact – the word “mentor” comes from Greek mythology. Before Odysseus (of the Odyssey fame) set off for the Trojan War, he entrusted his son Telemachus to a tutor named (you guessed it) Mentor.

AE Mentorship Programme

*Update: The AE Mentorship programme is currently not offered by IAL.

If you’ve studied at the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL) before, then you’ll have heard of the Adult Educator Network (AEN). AEN is transitioning to the Training & Adult Educator Professional Pathway (TAEPP) soon, which I’ve written about previously.

AEN had an AE Mentorship programme that you can read about here. Just like it says, it links mentees with mentors (although you’d do better trying to find a mentor that you can add value to, and the mentor has to agree).

Thankfully, Dr Eunice Lim agreed to be my mentor.

Meeting my mentor

I met Dr Eunice Lim at her signature Designing and Implementing Educational Escape Rooms course. I had no idea who she was I until I saw the workshop (and likewise, I don’t think I was on her radar until I attended the workshop).

She has a PhD in Adult and Continuing Education and Teaching, she teaches DDDLP, she leads a Special Interest Group in the AEN, among many, many, many other things.

Also she likes fun things (which means that she also appreciates that learning should be fun!)

So I’m grateful that she agreed to mentor me (it has to be a two-way thing) – given her busy schedule, it must have meant squeezing out time from somewhere else.

Mentorship – Facilitation

My mentorship wasn’t neatly broken up into two parts but I’m doing it that way because that’s what I got out of it.

Part of my mentorship was about facilitation – because at the root of adult education, you need to know how to teach and facilitate a class. I very gleefully leaped into facilitating sessions about educational escape rooms. I’ve been designing and teaching escape room lessons for years now – for young learners, covering English and Mathematics.

But adult learners are very different from young learners. The variances that you can get in a class are enormous – not just in ability, but in terms of demographics and emotionality and motivation and mindset.

My experiences with adult learners have been mostly homogenous – but the sessions we delivered at NLB and SMU really opened my eyes. I even had to co-regulate with one of the learners (something I picked up in coaching).

That was my biggest takeaway – that in an adult classroom, you need to reach each person and meet them on their level. That each unique adult learner means you, the adult educator, must have a diverse suite of tools in your AE toolbox.

Mentorship – Learning Design

My main focus is curriculum design (anyone can write a boring old lesson manual, but can you make it a fun and engaging learning experience?) so naturally I wanted to design an educational escape room right off the bat.

But hold on, padawan. You need to learn the basics first.

Or rather, get a feel of how it’s run and how diverse adult learners can be.

I would try to impress you and say I burnt the midnight oil etc… but the truth is, time flies when you’re having fun. Designing the educational escape room for Singapore Realtors Inc (SRI) was when I was really in flow. Dr Eunice and I had several iterations and I am very, very thankful that she’s not a micromanager and she went with my style and let me insert Easter eggs (of course I’d do that) and secret features in it. She put the finishing touches on the escape room lesson before we delivered it of course.

The design experience was one of the best I’ve ever had. I am no longer her mentor so I don’t have to say that (just in case) and the important thing is – Dr Eunice doesn’t micromanage. I can’t begin to tell you how easeful that made the whole experience.

Major learning points

For me, I’m all about the fun when it comes to educational escape rooms. But the key word is educational – which is something I can overlook in my attempt to make it fun and exciting. Dr Eunice made me realise that these are primarily lessons – not games – and so the learning must always take first place.

The second major learning point is about scaffolding and adjusting for different learners. Never be reticent to extend help to learners. The whole point of the escape room lesson is for them to win the game – that’s how the learning comes about. It’s a competition in that it’s meant to create motivation, but they’re expected to and must win. Otherwise, the learning objectives are not achieved.

Adult Educators’ Day 2025: Battle for the Constellation

Although my mentorship ended well before Adult Educators’ Day 2025, I’d like to think of it as the “graduation” for my mentorship.

Dr Eunice and I designed (with the input of Dr Mak) the escape room lesson, in addition to facilitating it with a fantastic group of AEs.

It was so gratifying to work as colleagues for this session – to know that this was the fruit of my labour for the mentorship programme.

Also it was a lot of fun. Of course it was. Educational escape rooms are meant to be fun.

Should you get a mentor

If you know your niche and you can bring value to a mentor – yes, by all means, look up a mentor for a mentorship! It’s literally on-the-job (OJT) learning.

For me, what I treasure most is the relationship. I still consult Dr Eunice for advice on the continuing adult education space in Singapore and navigating some issues.

And of course, if you ever want to convert your class into an educational escape room, you know how to call. (not Ghostbusters, call Dr Eunice & I).

I promise it’ll be fun.

You might also want to read:

• Encouraging adult educators to upskill: are CPD requirements actually forced learning? (TAEPP)