Mentoring

Mentoring is a one-to-one relationship between a young person and an adult that is developed over time and provides constant support, guidance and practical help as the young person goes through a challenging time.

Aims

To give the young person a personal experience of sharing experience and knowledge during confidential sessions. The mentor aims to help by:

• being a good listener
• being an advisor
• raising self-esteem, aspirations and expectations
• giving them more confidence to fulfil their potential
• showing the reality of the business world and the workplace
• working together to achieve agreed goals and much, much more

Benefits

To the mentor and the employer -

• the best quality training, absolutely free
• increase your company's profile in the community
• improve personal development, action planning, listening, inter-personal and communication skills and team building
• better motivated employees
• possible accreditations for the mentor through nationally recognised programmes

So what sort of person are we looking for?

A mentor must be -

• a volunteer
• committed
• totally reliable
• a role model
• skilled and experienced in various aspects to do with the workplace, home and social settings

Above all, the school must have complete faith in the mentor.

What support do we offer?

• training and matching with a suitable student
• group meetings for mentors to share their experiences
• a school mentoring co-ordinator for regular feedback and contact to check that goals and objectives are met and for advice in difficult situations

What support do we ask of the employer?

• commitment from the organisation
• to regularly release an employee for three school terms

Each mentoring session lasts approximately one hour per week and takes place at the designated school.

The local scheme

Some local organisations provide volunteer mentors for young people who are not achieving their full potential. These young people are clearly responding positively to the advice, support and encouragement from their mentors.

Students' comments

"Mentoring is an experiment to see if we can work better with someone who we can talk to every so often."

"When my mentor comes we talk about various different things from French and school work to football and sport. Every time he comes he asks me how I am doing with my school work, to which I reply 'I still hate French, but everything else is OK'."

"Mentoring is a good idea because you can tell them all your troubles without being bothered about them telling anybody else."

Mentoring companies' comments

"Look upon the mentoring experience as an opportunity for training, training of a very special kind...on the job, real people skills training."

Mentors' comments

"I believe the mentoring project is an excellent opportunity for pupils who are under-achieving at school. The relationship allows the pupil to gain the personal attention and help which they very much need in order to succeed at school, which is often not available due to the size of the classes."

"It questions your own beliefs and values, and your understanding of them, so self-awareness is heightened. You may even develop new interests, or change your own focus as a result."

"My mentee is now thinking about his future and what he wants out of life. When I first met him his response to most of my questions was 'I don't know'."

"I find the support groups for the mentors really helpful. This enables us to discuss progress to date and share ideas. This is also a great help as this often gives me a new outlook on things to do with my mentee, but I feel it is important to mention that whilst conducting these support groups, all mentors are aware that confidentiality is imperative."

Scheme co-ordinators' comments

"We offer training to people wishing to become mentors and organise contact with school staff so that everyone involved is confident about their role. The adults are then very carefully matched with students before any contacts take place. We provide a strong network of support."

" All of the mentors are very enthusiastic and confident that they can develop their skills at the same time as helping the students, in whatever way is most appropriate."

Extending the mentoring scheme

In December 2002, Compact was one of the few organisations to be recognised as an "approved provider" for the National Mentoring Network. people in the care of the Youth Offending