Supporting beekeepers to learn new skills
Mentoring can often be very beneficial to new beekeepers to support them in the early years of learning about bees and beekeeping practices. Having a supportive friend to discuss worries or challenges with can be reassuring. Ultimately it can influence whether someone continues to keep bees or abandons the craft. Traditional one to one mentoring can, however, be quite resource intensive for an association. Some associations have looked at other ways to provide support to new beekeepers.
The Bee Health Advisory Forum has gathered case studies which explain the experiences of Associations that use a variety of styles of mentoring to support their beekeepers through the first few seasons.
You may also find some useful information in the Mentoring Framework.