As we prepare for next year’s mentoring programme, we wanted to find out what impact we had on some of our mentors and mentees from this past year.
A survey completed by our mentees found that they felt more confident and enthusiastic after meeting with their mentor regularly, and found the meetings to be motivating and helpful. 88% students also felt that mentoring had the potential to improve their life, with one noting that it has helped them find ways to be more confident, calm and more social.
Aniello, one of the students that took part in our mentoring programme this year, found that having a mentor helped him gain a better understanding of what he wants to do once he leaves school, and now knows that he wants to enrol in a business course.
He also found it useful when his mentor, Tania, would set small tasks or targets each month to further his personal and academic development. For example, she gave him a copy of Time Riders by Alex Scarrow to help improve his vocabulary ahead of his English Language exams.
Tania is a Coach by profession, and has found that our mentoring programme sits well alongside her existing skills and experience. She was initially attracted to the programme by the training that we provide to prepare our mentors for engaging with young people.
She thinks it really important to build up a good relationship with trust, so that she can help her mentees think about what they want to do in the future. This enables her to point them in the direction of things they may want to research in more detail and set agreed goals or tasks to complete between their sessions.
As well as it being rewarding personal experience where she has learnt a lot herself, Tania has enjoyed making a positive difference to the life of a young person.
If you would like to find out more about our mentoring programme, please email Sean Callow, our Mentoring Project Manager, at mentoring@formthefuture.org.uk.
