The mentoring system offers individual advice over the entire period of the GradAB programme. Mentoring provides doctoral students with optimum guidance in achieving their qualification and therefore supplements the supervision by the formal supervisor and co-supervisor.
Each doctoral student is supported by a mentor from the IAB. These mentors are researchers who hold a PhD degree and have long-standing experience in research and policy advice – these are generally senior researchers of the IAB research departments, but also heads of research departments.
In regular meetings, mentors offer consulting on methodological and theoretical questions, but can also be approached for organisational issues with respect to the study programme, or for publication and presentation planning. In addition to this, basic questions concerning the process of achieving one's doctorate can also be addressed.