A Mentoring Program for Professional, Emerging & Aspiring Recruitment Leaders

PEARL (Professional, Emerging & Aspiring Recruitment Leaders) nurtures the next generation of recruitment professionals, helping them develop the essential skills needed to navigate both current and future challenges within the Recruitment and Staffing industry.

The program gives emerging leaders the chance to learn directly from the experiences of established industry professionals. In return, mentors benefit from exposure to the fresh perspectives and real-time challenges faced by today’s talent, while strengthening their own leadership practice through guidance and support.

Emerging leaders often enter their roles feeling both excited and unsure. By building self-awareness early, mentees can develop the resilience, confidence and clarity needed to become the future leaders of our industry.

Applications for the 2026 Program have now closed.

To enquire about the 2027 program please contact [email protected].

Benefits of Mentoring

Mentorship can offer a myriad of benefits for both mentors and mentees:

• Build genuine industry connections. Remote and hybrid work have reshaped how relationships form. Mentoring creates space for authentic connection across regions, roles and confidence levels through a blend of online and in-person catch-ups.
  
  
• Develop clarity of purpose. Mentees can identify and prioritise the skills and areas of growth most relevant to their career path, fostering intentional, self-directed development.
  
  
• Create your own benchmarks and celebrate wins. Acknowledging your wins can help you to persevere through future challenges
  
  
• Expand your support crew. Participants meet new industry colleagues who can become long-term sounding boards and trusted sources of advice well beyond the program.

Program Information

How are pairs Matched?

Participants go through a stringent matching process, with each pair aligned based on their goals, objectives, and professional background to ensure the best possible fit.

How often are the Mentoring sessions?

Mentors and mentees are encouraged to shape the relationship to suit their needs. However, experience shows that consistency is key to success, so we recommend meeting at least once a month throughout the program (1 March – 30 November 2026).

What support is provided during the program?

Download the PEARL Information Kit

Eligibility

To be considered as a Mentee, you must:

• Have at least two years of recent experience in the recruitment and staffing industry
• Be a current RCSA Individual Professional Member or your organisation is a Corporate Member
• Currently hold or about to undertake a people leadership role

To be considered as a Mentor, you must:

• Have leadership and/or mentoring experience within the recruitment and staffing industry; are
• Be a current RCSA Individual member or Corporate Member
• hold a current people leadership role in recruitment and staffing

Cost to Participate & Next Steps

Once notified as a successful Mentee or Mentor for the 2026 PEARL Program:

• Mentees will be charged a $400 AUD + GST participation fee. NZ participants don’t pay the GST*
• Second participant registrations (from the same organisation) will qualify for a 10% discount; for bulk enrolments please contact [email protected] for more information
• Mentors will not be charged given the knowledge and expertise they bring to the program

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Points:

Upon successful completion of the program each participant will earn 25 CPD points

Terms & Conditions for Mentee Registration Fee

Where a match is deemed unsuitable due to a genuine conflict of interest, the registration fee will be refunded on the following conditions:

1. The conflict of interest is verified by RCSA
2. The conflict of interest raised before 20 March 2026. There will be no refunds provided after 20 March 2026 for any reason.