‘Mentoring really makes a difference’

This initiative aims to provide students with invaluable insights into their respective fields through conversations on platforms like Zoom, Teams etc. It's about helping prepare students for their careers; enhancing the student experience; developing networking and other employability skills; and supporting the next year of graduating talent. But the scheme also offers the mentors the chance to develop their own skills.

What is mentoring? 

Mentoring is a supportive learning relationship where an experienced professional shares their knowledge with an individual who is ready to take their employability skills to the next level. Mentoring is more than 'giving advice' or passing on your experience in a particular area or situation. It's about motivating and empowering the other person to identify their own challenges and goals and helping them to find ways of resolving or reaching them. Mentors are not expected to help students with personal matters or assist them with academic work.   

Our programme

Mentors/Mentees complete a minimum of three hours of mentoring over the eight-week programme. After this journey, it's up to mentor and mentee if they would like to stay in touch. 

As a mentor we encourage you to be willing to share knowledge; have a positive attitude; be honest; offer constructive advice; be empathetic; and be unbiased and objective.

How you can help?

Why not sign up as a career mentor and share your expertise with the next generation? It's a flexible three hours to offer guidance and inspiration, and you can really make a difference in the lives of students by providing them with a glimpse into what lies ahead in their careers.

Ready to make an impact? If you are interested in becoming a career mentor and learning more about the programme, please contact the Career Mentoring Team at UEL.

A case study 

Joanne Roberts is a second year on the Bsc Psychology course, studying full time through distance learning.

How was your mentoring experience? 
I found the UEL mentoring scheme very beneficial. Occupational psychology is a very diverse area… having a mentor gave me an overview of what my journey to becoming an occupational psychologist could look like. 

Working together on my CV and my desire to develop my leadership skills, I felt supported as she reminded me of some of the great skills and attributes that I have to offer an employer, which helped to build my confidence in my skills and improved my thinking as to what I know I can bring to an employer/role. 

She also gave me excellent suggestions of companies I could reach out to and encouraged me to broaden my thinking on what roles I could do to help me achieve my goal of being an occupational psychologist. Her independent, unbiased advice is priceless. I felt as though I had someone on my side, who has been through the same or similar experiences and could help me to avoid common pitfalls. 

Why would you recommend Mentoring to other students/graduates?   

Having a mentor helped to foster feelings of hope and optimism for the future, increasing my confidence and sense of self-efficacy. The boost to my confidence has been very important to achieving my goals. I would recommend mentoring, I can see a real change in myself, in that I reach out to others more (e.g., lectures for feedback or guidance and asking about things I can get involved in), I've taken on a leadership role (as a student rep for the DL cohort) and my increased confidence has meant that I have managed to secured a research assistant role over the summer. Mentoring really makes a difference… just having a one-to-one and being able to have the space to enhance your strengths and build on weaknesses.

The Mentor was Wunmi Adebowale:

My mentee was exceptionally receptive, eager to learn, and fully committed to the mentoring program. Over the past few weeks, we cultivated a strong and rewarding relationship. It has been a truly gratifying experience to work with her as my mentee. I would recommend the programme to a friend or colleague as it was an important and insightful experience.

• Safina Lopez-Gerstmayer is a Mentoring Officer at the University of East London.

'My role involves the coordination, planning, and running of our flagship Professional (Career) Mentoring Programme, as well as Peer Mentoring Programmes and in-person/online mentoring events. I'm the lead officer for the school of Psychology and therefore oversee the mentoring partnerships within that sector. I'm excited about the prospect of working with the British Psychological Society to build and strengthen our pool of mentors, enriching our students' educational experiences and supporting their career aspirations in Psychology.'