Kicking off the Mentoring Works programme 2023-24
Kicking off the Mentoring Works programme 2023-24
Written by Maria Tonchievici, Deputy Head of Programmes – Education & Mentoring Works
Early September means one thing – a new school academic year is about to begin, therefore a new year for our Mentoring Works programme is about to be unveiled.
Across our partner schools in East London and Islington, students in Year 10 and Sixth form will be matched to volunteer mentors from our corporate partners. Students are encouraged to develop the knowledge and skills needed for their future education, training or careers. They self-refer to the programme and, ordinarily, would travel to the mentor’s place of work for regular one hour sessions every two weeks for a period of 9 months. Most importantly, the students are encouraged to set their own individual objectives with their mentor, utilising the given guidance to work within the Skills Builder framework and the Mentoring Works competencies which will be evaluated at the end of the programme.
Mentoring Works’ aims are to introduce young people to the world of work, raise their aspirations, enable them to identify career goals, and increase their employability through development of key transferable skills and competencies. The mentors are encouraged to become a professional adult friend and guide their student in making their own discoveries and decisions.
Over the years we received fantastic feedback from students, mentors, school coordinators and corporate partners. See below for a selection of testimonials:
“One way the mentoring experience will help me in the future is that some of the skills and knowledge I have learnt will help me with my university pathway that I have chosen and the skills will help me with my employability and in the future I will be open to either getting mentored again or mentoring someone as I know first hand how helpful it is.”
– Mentee
“The thing I found the most enjoyable during the mentoring programme was having a mentor who is experienced in the field and job area that I want to go into as I had lots of questions about the pathway to the career and university, and all of the questions I had are now knowledge that I have.”
– Mentee
“Every session with my mentee has been full of energy and commitment, leaving me feeling uplifted and rewarded each time.”
– Mentor
“Realisation that you can actually establish a connection with the teenager without ever seeing them in person. My mentee is very bright, she has not skipped any session and it’s been beautiful to observe her opening up.”
– Mentor
“The most positive benefit for our students was building their confidence. It assists students with aspects of their life not linked to academic work and acts as a support system.”
– School Coordinator
“The programme allows volunteers of any background to use their skills and experiences and to develop those skills in new and meaningful ways. It also allows us to reach a good number of students but in a really high impact and bespoke way, meaning they get a lot more out of it.”
– Company Coordinator
We look forward to welcoming a new cohort of students and their mentors! We wish them all the very best and let’s meet in July for one of a kind celebration event to honour their achievements.
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