Mentoring is the system, or the ongoing work, in which people with a lot of experience advise and help others — often new staff at work, or young people getting ready for work. It is usually one-to-one and lasts for a stretch of time, more like a guide walking beside you than a teacher in front of a class. Companies like the word because it sounds organised and kind. As a noun it names the whole arrangement (a mentoring programme), not only the action happening right now. It is not the same as monitoring, which is watching and checking, often to catch problems.