MENTORING PRACTICE IN THE FOURTH INDUSTRY REVOLUTION: A SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE

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In the absence of face-to-face mentoring, the study investigates the difficulties newly hired academics have assimilating into a Higher Education Institution (HEI), a university in Johannesburg, and how electronic mentoring strategies promote these newcomers' social learning. The study used an interpretivist paradigm with discourse-oriented interviews as the main data collection instrument to collect data from 20 recently hired academic staff members who were in their first two years of their academic careers at a South African university. The study found that by utilizing resources from the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), such as YouTube, Ted Talks, and WhatsApp, to improve their social learning, novices were able to smoothly make the move into academia. The study suggests that educational institutions investigate conceptual issues related to electronic mentoring and its advantages for and its benefits for both the institution and the newly appointed lecturers. In addition to promoting decolonisation and creating a more inclusive and equitable learning environment in the context of higher education in Africa, social media mentoring offers strategic 4IR tools that have the potential to expand and enhance mentoring practices at institutions. Because social learning could close the digital gap and facilitate newcomers' integration into academia, it holds significant implications for higher education in Africa.