This year nearly 100 students from eight Cambridge area schools were supported by a volunteer mentor from the business community. In the next academic year, the number of students is doubling and they need 100 new mentors from different professions to meet all the areas of interest.
Anyone can be a mentor as training is provided. No previous experience is necessary, just a desire to make a difference and willingness to give up to one hour a month.
Alan Robinson who works at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit found the time to mentor and cannot recommend the scheme highly enough: “I will definitely be a mentor again (next year). To see the positive impact it can have for a relatively minor input is absolutely fantastic. I’ve seen my mentee develop in ways that I had not expected.”
Describing his experience as a mentee, a student from Sawston Village College said, “I’ve got someone I can rely on now. To be able to meet someone like this at an early age is such a good feeling….she has helped me improve my grades and to think about my behaviour.”
How does it work?
Mentors and Mentees are matched based on shared interests and job aspirations. Many of the students are eligible for free school meals, most are at risk of disengaging from education and not achieving their full potential, while some simply lack direction or have a career goal, but no plan for reaching it. Mentors can provide the vital one-to-one support that helps students find a new sense of purpose, motivation and direction.
At the new Bishop Laney Sixth Form in Ely all students will be provided with a business mentor to help them prepare for their future careers.
Anyone can be a mentor. Mentors receive five hours of training from a professional development agency, and Form the Future arranges the matching, the safeguarding issues and the logistics of the meetings (which always happen in school). You will be required to listen a great deal and empathise - providing challenge and support once you have built up a relationship of trust.
Form the Future CIC is a social enterprise that is changing the way students learn about, and prepare for, the world of work. In addition to the mentoring, it delivers two major programmes in the Cambridge area: the skills service for the Greater Cambridge Partnership, and Cambridge LaunchPad: a technology outreach programme led by leading STEM employers. Other services for schools and businesses are listed on the websites: www.formthefuture.org.uk and www.timetostepup.co.uk
To enquire about mentoring, please email [email protected] or call Sean on 01223 781296.
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