Mentoring Works – Year 10 programme launch 2017-18

As a new academic year is launched, so are further Mentoring Works programme cohorts, with Year 10 students across London, South East and Coast to Capital (spanning an area from Croydon to Brighton) meeting their business mentors for the first time.

With lively and jam-packed launch events held across October and early November there are hundreds of students and mentors setting off on their mentoring journey. Mentoring Works has been offering London students the chance to be supported by a business mentor for over 20 years but, as part of the Careers Enterprise Company Mentoring Fund to make high quality mentoring more widely available to more school students across the UK, ELBA are piloting their well established mentoring programme to other areas outside London.

Recently launched partnerships include Schroders with Mossbourne Community Academy, Linklaters with Clapton Girls’ Academy and Duke’s Aldridge Academy, Freshfields with Haggerston School, CMS with Cardinal Pole Catholic School, Societe Generale with Hackney New School, Morgan Stanley with Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy and American Express mentors working with volunteers from the ‘Inspiring the Future’ initiative to mentor students from the Varndean School in Brighton.

This builds on partnerships that launched over the summer months; Hackney New School with Clyde & Co, KPMG with Lister Community School and Oasis Academy Silvertown and a number of ‘Inspiring the Future’ volunteers from Maidstone and Croydon matched to St Simon Stock Catholic School, Harris Academy South Norwood and Oasis Academy Shirley Park.

At the first visits to the business venue where their mentoring takes place, students mingled with the business volunteers before starting first conversations to get to know one another and discuss what to get out of the programme. here was a real buzz in the room and it was clear that some great relationships would form.

There was a strong appetite for mentoring amongst the Year 10’s this year with high numbers securing places on the programme. The Mentoring Works team read the students’ applications with great interest and there were some standout comments:

The Year 10 Mentoring Works programmes will now run with regular, independent mentoring sessions, until the programmes conclude with a group celebration event for all participants.

Established in 1996, ELBA’s Mentoring Works programme matches Year 10 and Sixth Form students to business professionals. Students are encouraged to develop the skills and competencies needed for future education, training or careers. Mentoring Works has been assessed and accredited with the Approved Provider Standard (APS) by the Mentoring & Befriending Foundation. The APS is the national quality standard designed specifically for all types of mentoring and befriending projects.