Mentoring

The mentoring scheme is designed to be as flexible as possible.

Together with your mentee(s), you decide when and where to meet within the following guidelines:

• You meet up once or twice a month for 1 hour.
• Meetings are held either at your business or your mentee’s school.
• We ask for a commitment of 6 – 10 months to the scheme.
• Most schemes start in the Autumn Term and run until the following summer.

Students apply for the scheme, or are put forward by their teachers as they believe they would benefit from focusing on one or more of the following: future aspirations, specific career options, motivation and self-esteem.

For Students:

• Discovering employment opportunities.
• Experiencing the work environment.
• The opportunity to develop a friendship with a positive adult role model.
• Increased self-confidence, self-esteem and broadening of horizons.
• Enhancing and developing key skills such as CV writing, interview technique and time management.

For Volunteers:

• The opportunity to do something different and have a positive impact on the development of local young people.
• The opportunity to ‘give something back’ to the community.
• Helping to put work into perspective.
• The opportunity to discover more about the education system.
• The opportunity to test skills in a new, challenging environment.
• The opportunity to learn about different cultures and religions.

For Companies/Organisations:

• Contributing to the local community.
• Developing employees’ mentoring skills.
• Developing employees’ interpersonal skills.
• Helping to motivate employees.
• The benefit to the firm’s public relations.
• Complementing the firm’s training programmes.

We welcome teams of volunteers (a minimum of 8 people from one company) which are then partnered with specific schools. Could this suit you and your colleagues? Get in touch!

Individual volunteers looking for a similar opportunity to work with secondary school students might like to take part in our Employability Skills Programmes.