The Canadian Association of Journalists’ mentorship program pairs CAJ members with established professionals working in radio, television, digital, and print publications across the country. Student journalists, those starting their career, and professionals at any career stage looking to develop new skills are encouraged to apply.

This is a competitive program. While we strive to pair as many applicants as possible with mentors, there is far more demand than our volunteers can meet. For some tips on strengthening your application, or if you have questions about the program, please see our mentorship FAQ below.

If you are not a CAJ member and the cost of membership or the application fee would prohibit you from applying to the mentorship program, please send us an email at learning@caj.ca to be considered for a bursary to cover part or all of membership and/or application fees. Please note the CAJ offers reduced membership rates for students and low-income journalists ranging from $20-$40.

Mentorship Matches

Congratulations to those matched in the most recent round of the mentorship program. To view all those matched, and matches from previous rounds of the program, head to our mentorship matches page.

FAQ

Here are some of the most common questions we receive about the mentorship program.

No, you can submit both in whichever order works for you, as long as we receive your membership application before the mentorship deadline closes.

No, you don’t. Our mentorship program can run virtually. If you’re in the same region though, mentors love to meet in person.

The CAJ is proud to offer mentors to journalists looking for support in both English and French. Mentors’ spoken languages are indicated at the bottom of their biographies.

After you hit “submit” you will see a thank you page but you won’t receive a confirmation email. As long as you see the thank you page, your application has been received. If you’re concerned about it please email us at learning@caj.ca and we will be happy to double-check for you.

Don’t forget the basics. Please spell the name of the person you want to work with correctly. Adhere to the 100 word limit for the questions (and make sure you answer them all, in the correct fields). Be clear about what you hope to achieve with the program and how your chosen mentors can help: don’t tell us you want to learn how to podcast from a photojournalist or anchor from an SEO specialist. You’d be surprised how many applicants forget these things and so it’s an easy way to set yourself up for success.

Beyond that, please personalize your application to the person you want to work with because ultimately they are the ones deciding. Check out our mentors’ bios, read them carefully, and tailor your answers to the type of person they are looking to mentor.

The CAJ’s mentorship committee, which is composed of members of our volunteer board of directors, along with any non-director committee members (typically past mentors), read all applications. The committee filters out a small number of applications that did not meet the program criteria (see above section on remembering the basics), and then forwards a shortlist to each mentor.

Previous applicants who were not paired have their applications flagged and mentors are encouraged to select those applicants over those who’ve already been mentored. The mentor then picks the mentee(s) they want to work with.

Pretty good. But it depends on the strength of your application (more on that above). Our current average number of applications received is 138 and our current match rate is 58%. You can view more details of the history of matching in our Program Stats.

Though the program used to run without an entry/admin fee, we have had to implement a small fee to help offset the costs of running the program, which are related to staff time and the software needed for applications. As costs rise, each of our programs need to be able to contribute to the overall costs to run them, allowing us to keep our membership rates as low as possible. Similar to how our awards program functions, this new fee can be thought of as an entry or admin fee, which helps cover the basic costs of the program. The mentors themselves are still volunteers, as are the committee members who work on reviewing and matching the applicants and mentors. By utilizing the generosity of volunteers, this continues to help to keep costs, and fees to the applicants, as low as possible. We believe this small fee is a worthwhile investment in accessing a program designed to create meaningful connections, provide mentorship, and support your professional growth.

Yes. The program has specific costs regardless of how many matches are made and so the fee is meant to cover the costs of running the whole program, not as any sort of compensation for the volunteer mentors. We will continue to make every effort to match as many applicants with our generous mentors, based on the mentors’ time and availability. For transparency, we are now posting our past mentorship program stats related to the number of applicants and matches in past rounds of the program, so you can understand the amount of time and labour that goes into the program, as well as your odds of being matched.