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Mentoring Handbook 2020

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Dear mentor, We are delighted to welcome you to this year’s Y12/S5 mentoring programme. Our 2020 student cohort is the biggest yet, with more mentors involved than ever before. We look forward to working with you over the coming year, and we hope you are looking forward to getting to know your mentee and supporting them. We will be assisting you over the next 9 to 10 months and this handbook contains an outline as you begin preparing for the start of your mentoring relationship. This handbook contains information to help you understand who SMF mentees are, and the expectations of a mentor in supporting them. Thank you for the time and the support you will offer to your SMF mentee. We look forward to working with you! With very best wishes, The SMF Mentoring Team

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Contents

About the Social Mobility Foundation ................................................................................................... 4

Mentee profile ............................................................................................................................................... 4

Aspiring Professionals Programme ....................................................................................................... 5

Mentoring at the SMF ................................................................................................................................ 6

Your role as a mentor ................................................................................................................................. 8

Mentoring cycle ............................................................................................................................................ 8

Getting started and setting objectives ................................................................................................. 9

Creating a successful mentoring relationship .................................................................................. 12

Benefits for mentors and mentees ...................................................................................................... 13

Maintaining contact .................................................................................................................................. 14

Prompt system ........................................................................................................................................... 15

Technical guide .......................................................................................................................................... 16

Safeguarding & child protection ........................................................................................................... 17

Further support .......................................................................................................................................... 18

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About the Social Mobility Foundation

The Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) is a charity which aims to make a practical improvement in social mobility for high-achieving young people from low-income backgrounds. With the help of professionals and firms, we support over 2000 Y12/S5 students each year, who have the academic ability to flourish in the top universities and professions but lack the encouragement and networks to help them get there. The SMF then supports these students until they enter employment. We support students across 11 career sectors (Accountancy, Architecture, Banking & Finance, Biology & Chemistry, Business, Digital, Engineering & Physics, Law, Media & Communications, Medicine, Politics) and have a No Preference strand for students unsure on their career interests.

Students accepted onto our programmes gain access to a wide range of opportunities through our four areas of support. These are the opportunity to be mentored by a professional in their chosen career, tailored skills sessions and career workshops, university application support, and internships with top employers. The mentoring cycle is just one element of our Aspiring Professionals Programme.

Mentee Profile

Aged 16-17 In Year 12/S5 and predicted ABB at A

Level or ABBB in Highers EITHER: personally eligible for Free School

Meals during secondary schooling OR: the first generation in their family to

attend university in the UK AND attended a school during GCSE/National 5 with a high than average proportion of students eligible for Free School Meals

You can find out more about the eligibility criteria for SMF students on our website here.

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Aspiring Professionals Programme

Our Aspiring Professionals Programme (APP) is carefully designed to open up professions for those with the ability to join them in the future, but without the means or networks to get there. We aim to give students a real insight into top professions and to provide them with the skills needed to achieve their aspirations. The programme starts in Y12/S5 and we continue supporting students during their time at university, on school leaver programmes or gap years, until they enter the world of employment and become SMF alumni.

APP City

Students who live within an hour of an APP City (Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Newcastle) are offered skill sessions, internships and university application support in their APP City. They will also receive a mentor from their chosen profession.

APP Residential

Students who live more than an hour away from an APP City are prioritised for APP Residential. APP Residential offers the opportunity to undertake a one or two-week internship with a top employer in London with all expenses paid. Whilst on their residential and in addition to the internship, students receive skill sessions, university application support, and a mentor.

APP Reach

APP Reach supports students from low income backgrounds in harder to reach areas across the UK from lower sixth/S5 who may be unable to attend workshops in person. It’s open to motivated, ambitious students from low privileged backgrounds who may not meet the academic criteria for APP residential.

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Mentoring at the SMF

The aim of the one year long Y12/S5 mentoring programme is to provide students access to a professional mentor who can advise and support students to develop key skills and areas of knowledge: by providing an insight into a professional career a student aspires to enter, helping their understanding on how to get there, and practice skills as students move through sixth-form/S5-S6 into post-18 options.

SMF has developed a key set of competencies, called Building My Future: The Toolkit, which outline skills and knowledge to help students progress into Higher Education and employment. SMF programmes aim to deliver activities which help students improve in these competency areas. Mentoring is a core part of this support and has the potential to make a significant contribution dependent on interests, experience, and needs of the mentor and mentee.

Below are the five areas of our Building My Future: The Toolkit that the mentoring programme will utilise to support students. Having a professional mentor offers students the opportunity to develop the following skills and knowledge areas. Students will already be familiar with this framework so do use this to guide setting goals for your mentoring relationship.

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The following descriptions detail how as a mentor you can support your mentee in developing each competency area. These are meant to be guidelines to help focus and set the expectations.

It is important to note, that we do not expect mentors to have expert knowledge in all these areas, but rather be able to provide sound advice and guidance to your mentee on where to go to find out more and act as a facilitator in supporting them to independently find out more.

•Access to a professional mentor is an invaluable opportunity for students to get aninsight into a potential career path. Students won’t have access to family and friendsworking in a professional context to provide support and information regarding thecareer path they are considering.

•As a professional mentor, you can support your mentee by providing insights andknowledge about your career and the skills valued through your experiences in yourcurrent role, past experiences, and your future goals.

Building My Career

•You can support your mentee in managing their post-18 options by discussing withyour mentee how you managed your post-18 options and how these have impactedyour career path, and your thoughts about points to consider.

•Majority of students have the goal to enter university, so you can support your menteeas they research choices and courses, entry requirements, and understandinguniversity life and study. For those not considering university, dicuss different post-18options available to them e.g. high-level apprenticeships or school leaver programmes(Level 4 or above).

Building My Options for Education and Work

•Communicating regularly with a mentor will help mentees to develop their professionalnetworking skills. It is an opportunity for mentees to work on building rapport andteamwork which are important in professional networks.

Building My Network

•Communicating with others in a professional context is a skill that you can supportyour mentee to develop. Ensuring written communication is clear, concise, and writtenin a professional manner will be key to students as they move into university and in aprofessional setting.

Building My Communication

•Mentees are expected to work on taking responsibility for their own professionaldevelopment. We recommend mentoring pairs being in contact with each other atleast once every two weeks, and mentees will work on developing theirprofessionalism and reflectiveness with the support of a mentor.

•Through the mentoring, it will hopefully support students in becoming more confidentand resilient towards their career goals.

Building My Self-Awareness

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Your Role as a Mentor

Mentoring is an essential element of our Aspiring Professionals Programme and as such your role is vital. Your array of professional experiences will be invaluable to your mentee, who may not have any direct access to someone who can provide guidance and support.

You will be paired with a mentee based on your profession and the career sector your mentee expressed an interest in upon application. Where possible, we try and also match based on location in order to facilitate meeting up. Your relationship with your mentee begins as they near the end of Y12/S5, and enter a crucial period in their university and career pathways. Over the next few months, decisions will be made that will have a significant impact on the opportunities available to them after their A-Level/Higher studies.

Each mentoring relationship is different with mentors utilising different approaches to help mentees realise their goals. We are not prescriptive and provide mentors with the freedom to approach mentoring in a way that best suits them. However, we do expect pairs to communicate at least once a fortnight via email.

You will receive bulletins throughout the year which will provide insights into your mentees journey with SMF, advice about important upcoming deadlines relevant to your mentee as well as suggested topics for you to cover in your exchanges. Think about how you are best able to support your mentee through this crucial period but also encourage them to think independently and make well researched and reasoned choices.

Mentoring Cycle

Mentoring relationship set up

on online mentoring site.

Initial conversations with mentee to become familiar

with them and set objectives.

Apr-May

Mentees focusing on work experience

and internships throughout summer

holidays.

Mentees starting to research different universities and

courses.

Jun-Aug

UCAS deadline 15

October for Oxbridge, Medicine,

and Veterinary Science courses. Recommended deadline for all

university applications.

Sept-Oct

Mentees receiving university offers.

Mentoring relationship officially

coming to an end, but pairs are

welcome to stay in touch. Completing

evaluations.

Jan-Feb

Preparing for university

interviews and January exams.

Looking ahead to university life and

deciding on firm and insurance choices.

Nov-Dec

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Getting Started and Setting Objectives

Step one As all mentees are under-18, we ask all mentors to become familiarised with our Safeguarding Policy. All your emails will go via our secure online mentoring site and are stored, so if there is any sensitive information shared or you are unsure on a particular matter, please contact the SMF so we are able to support you and your mentee. Step two The SMF will have matched you with a mentee based on your professional background and the mentee’s career interests. We will take into consideration other factors to make a best possible match e.g. university attended and particular career goals. You will then be set up on our online mentoring site (read more about this in the Technical Guide section). The email address you have provided us will be registered with the system and you will receive an automated email to confirm your registration. You will also receive a separate automated email containing the name of your mentee and the email address you can reach them at. Step three You will receive a short online pre-mentoring evaluation form which we would appreciate you completing. This helps us to evaluate the programme and support ongoing improvements to the mentoring programme and SMF programmes more broadly.

Step four Once you have received the details of your mentee, you are free to begin mentoring! As the mentor, we ask that you make the initial contact with your mentee. This initial email could include an introduction to yourself, your career background, your university studies, and any hobbies to help them get to know you better. Don’t forget to ask your mentee questions to prompt conversation! Step five Within the first few emails it would be useful to set objectives with your mentee. You will want to discuss with your mentee the Building My Future: The Toolkit to agree on objectives for your mentoring relationship.

“Whenever I was doubtful of my choices I had the chance to ask someone who had already

been through the process. Having their guidance made

my decision-making a lot easier." Anastasia, SMF

mentee in 2019.

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Setting Objectives Deciding upon some key objectives within the first two weeks of the mentorship will help keep your mentoring exchanges focused and effective. Find out about your mentees ambitions, interests, skills and motivations, as understanding their goals and priorities will help you frame discussions and create realistic short, medium and long-term objectives. Objectives should be set through discussion with your mentee. It is helpful if the mentor takes the lead since objective-setting may be new to the mentee. You could start the process by:

Asking your mentee what they hope to achieve through this programme. Asking which areas related to careers and university support they feel least confident in. Using the SMART and other models below as a guide and a way of ensuring your objectives

are reasonable and effective. S – Specific - What exactly does my mentee wish to accomplish on the programme and why? M – Measurable – Make sure to create objectives that you can track as this will keep your mentee on target and help you evaluate your mentoring relationship. A – Achievable – You should wish to stretch your mentee and set challenging targets but make sure that they’re achievable. R – Relevant – Are your mentees programme goals relevant to their personal and career development? T – Time Bound – Think about what you can reasonably achieve with your mentee over the course of the programme. Here are some further resources you might find useful to use and discuss with your mentee:

SMART - https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/smart-goals.htm GROW - https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_89.htm

Example Objectives Below are some example objectives to help direct your thinking but please do discuss with your mentee to put together SMART goals that are relevant and achievable for you both. Mentee to have researched financial careers and identified three people/opportunities through

SMF, mentor etc. to speak to over the next 6 months. Identify opportunities to apply for at various stages of university and think about methods of

improving your application. Seek out an opportunity to network and practice an introductory elevator pitch to a professional.

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SMART Goal 1

SMART Goal 2

SMART Goal 3

Alongside setting objectives, we have identified some areas for development that are common to most of the students we work with. Work to increase your mentees confidence, knowledge, and aspirations. Dispel misconceptions concerning the profession that they are interested in. Without any contact

with someone working in the profession, mentees may base their impressions on media coverage or TV shows.

Correct misinformation and help them to thoroughly research their options. For example, there are many myths concerning university entrance and tuition fees, which can put students off applying.

Encourage them to develop a professional writing style. Most of our mentees will have no experience of communicating via email with a professional. We have provided them with a guide, so do help them to adopt a formal (but friendly) tone and style.

“The words of encouragement from my mentor inspired me to never give up. I was able to move forward with wider decisions.” Raiyan, SMF mentee in 2019

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Creating a Successful Mentoring Relationship

Your mentee will receive a handbook similar to this and have attended a launch event which guides them through the different elements of the programme. They have been told that mentoring is a key component of the programme and that their mentor is someone who can advise and support them to develop key professional skills and areas of knowledge.

We expect mentees to engage in all aspects of the programme and inform them that they are equally responsible for developing the relationship with their mentor. However, at times your mentee may be less responsive than desired and in the first instance, be patient and persevere with your attempts to re-engage your mentee.

Tips for a successful mentoring relationship

Focus on developing rapport at the start, don’t worry about what you think a mentor ‘should be’ – just be yourself!

As the primary method of communication with your mentee will be email, consider establishing a specific day of the week on which to communicate with your mentee. This will help provide a structure and timeline to your communication.

Increasing your mentees knowledge around a professional career sector does not need to be all about sharing your experiences; you can guide your mentee to research a subject area they are interested in and discuss topical issues in the industry.

Ask your mentee open-ended questions that will require fairly detailed answers, and avoid asking all your questions at once.

Don’t worry if your mentee asks you about a topic you don’t know much about – you could ask a colleague with expertise in that field, suggest resources that your mentee can look at for research, or get in touch with the SMF for support. You aren’t expected to have all the answers, but rather to be a source of logical guidance.

If your mentee is unresponsive, rephrase the question and send a follow-up email asking if they need more time.

A good mentor is:

Approachable and encouraging: being a good listener and sharing your own experiences will put your mentee at ease and ensure you both get the most out of your relationship.

Non-judgemental: acting as an open-minded sounding board will help the mentee come to their own decision.

Consistent and reliable: making time for your mentee and following through with agreed plans will make the mentee feel valued and set a good standard for them to follow.

Patient and persistent: it may take time to develop a rapport and see tangible changes in your mentee. Our previous mentoring experience shows mentees do benefit greatly, even if you cannot see a difference straight away!

Able to give constructive feedback: Your mentee may ask you for feedback on their CV, interview technique, or personal statement. When giving feedback:

Be clear and specific about what can be improved - vague feedback is unhelpful and doesn’t help mentees address their most pressing needs efficiently.

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Balance negative feedback with positives - it’s important that you don’t just focus on negatives. Your mentee may struggle to identify their strengths or have an overblown sense of their weaker areas.

Be a guide and a soundboard but don’t do all the thinking for your mentee. Encourage independent and analytical thought and challenge them.

If work is good or improved, be specific about the reasons why. Avoid feedback which praises or criticises the mentees character rather than the work itself. Be open to your own feedback, and requests for clarification from your mentee.

Benefits for Mentors and Mentees

Benefits for mentees: Benefits for mentors: Improved knowledge of the profession Gain mentoring experience A better understanding of the entry routes into the profession.

Improve the skills, knowledge, and confidence of a bright young person

Increased confidence Build on your own communication and feedback skills

Developed professional contacts Nurture future talent More competitive approach to university applications

Improve your understanding of access to Higher Education and professions for young people

“I have enjoyed being involved in the SMF mentoring scheme and supporting an A level student as they apply to university. I have tried to put myself in their shoes and see the process from their perspective. This has been a useful experience for my own development.” SMF mentor in 2019.

"My mentor constantly encouraged me and was quick

to respond to any queries or worries with her full attention, which in return encouraged me to keep in regular contact with

her.” Victor, SMF mentee in 2019.

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Maintaining Contact Making time for mentoring

Mentoring is the only part of the SMF programme that provides consistent support for our students throughout the year, regardless of the other opportunities open to them. Therefore, we like our mentoring pairs to be in touch with each other at least once every two weeks for the duration of the programme.

Many mentoring pairs find it useful to establish a specific day of the week on which they will communicate. To help keep the contact going, ask open-ended questions that will require fairly detailed answers, and don’t ask all of your questions at once!

We have asked your mentee to let you know if they are unable to contact you for a given time period, e.g. due to needing to focus on revision or being on holiday. We appreciate that all of our mentors are busy professionals, but it will be helpful for your mentee if you are able to let them know when you are entering particularly busy periods and may not be able to get in touch. Sending them a short note to give them an estimate of when you will be able to write a full response will ensure that they know that you have not forgotten about them!

Meet-ups

We arrange some face to face meet-ups for our mentoring pairs at various points throughout the year. However, this is not currently possible following the Government guidance regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. We will be keeping mentors updated on alternatives to meeting face to face as the situation develops.

Ordinarily, meet-up events are a great opportunity for you and your mentee to meet informally at a centralised location organised by the SMF. We would encourage you and your mentee to organise to come along to these events, as face to face interaction can add value to your mentoring, and help you relate to your mentee to further build your online relationship. These will take place across venues in Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Manchester, and Newcastle.

If you would like to meet up with your mentee outside of one of our scheduled mentoring meet-ups, you are welcome to do so. Once you have arranged a date, time, and location for your meeting, please contact SMF with these details at least 5 working days before you are due to meet. SMF will then contact the mentee’s parents to gain their permission before confirming that the meet-up can go ahead.

Your mentee may be in a different location to you which means meeting face to face is not possible. This is absolutely fine, as the mentoring programme is designed to happen over email, and phone calls are a great alternative to meeting face to face.

Please remember: all mentees are under-18 when they join the mentoring programme, so it is essential that the SMF are notified of any meet-ups or phone calls outside of scheduled events in line with our Safeguarding Policy. Meet-ups or phone calls cannot go ahead without the consent of your mentees parents/legal guardians.

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Phone calls If you and your mentee wished to organise a phone call, please let the SMF know. We will first need to obtain parental consent to ensure the mentee’s parents are aware of the call and give consent. Our online mentoring site automatically censors out phone numbers, so the SMF will facilitate the exchange of numbers.

Prompt System

We have developed a Prompt System to promote regular communication is being made between mentors and mentees in line with our mentoring expectations of one email exchange between pairs every two weeks. This is to ensure that mentoring partners are engaging with each other, which is important to the success of the mentoring relationship. If our online site notices that you or your mentee have not exchanged an email in two weeks, it will send out an automatic prompt email to the person who is yet to respond to the last email, reminding them that they are yet to respond. If after three successive prompts, there has been no response, the SMF may look to reassigning the individuals in the mentoring pair. If it is the mentee that has been unresponsive, the SMF will investigate further to see if it is appropriate in removing the student from the mentoring programme (they will remain a part of the wider SMF programmes). The mentor will move to our reserve pool to be matched to another mentee at the earliest opportunity. If it is the mentor that has been unresponsive, we will follow up with you to check in with you and support you if you have any difficulties in mentoring, or a simple reminder if you have been busy! If you are unable to commit to the mentoring in the midst of the programme we will look to reassigning your mentee to another mentor, and closing the current mentoring relationship between mentor-mentee.

As with meeting up face to face, it is essential that the SMF are notified of any planned phone calls so we are able to obtain parental consent.

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Technical Guide Communicating via email SMF use an online site to manage the mentoring relationships (www.smfmentoring.org.uk). All emails sent using this site are recorded and can be read by the SMF. Using the site does not differ much to sending a standard email. Your email account will be registered with the site and you can then use this address to contact your mentee via a specially created email address. The site does not share your email address with your mentee, as any email sent to a @smfmentoring.org.uk address will go through www.smfmentoring.org.uk. The site detects the sender and will forward the message onto the relevant user.

Please be aware that this method will only work when sending emails from the email address that has been registered with the SMF. Sending an email to a @smfmentoring.org.uk email address from a different email address will result in it being blocked by our online site, and will result in a delay of your message reaching your mentee. If you have two email accounts that you use interchangeably, you are able to specify an alternative email address from which you can send emails. Clicking ‘Update my profile’ in the sidebar will bring up the screen on the right. Please bear in mind however, emails sent to you will only be delivered to your main email address. If you would like to change the email address that the SMF uses to contact you, please get in touch with SMF.

Mentor

Sending from mentor@gmail.com to mentee@smfmentoring.org.uk

Mentee

Receiving from mentor@smfmentoring.org.uk to mentee@hotmail.co.uk

SMF mentoring

site

In line with our Safeguarding Policy, we ask that you do not share personal contact details with your mentee. Email addresses, telephone numbers and words such as Skype and Facebook will be censored by the system, so please do not attempt to share any personal contact details. All that your mentee will need to contact you on is your @smfmentoring.org.uk email address. If you are emailing from your work email address, please be conscious that any automatic signatures containing contact details may be included. Where possible, it is best to remove these to ensure that no information is accidentally passed on.

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Safeguarding and Child Protection As all SMF mentees are under 18 when they join the mentoring programme, we have guidelines in place for safeguarding and child protection. For more information on this, please find our Safeguarding Policy here. The SMF mentoring website is designed to ensure that all communication is carried out in a supervised environment. Personal contact details are filtered, all attachments are checked, and messages are stored centrally to be monitored by the Mentoring Team. These provisions should not be restrictive, but please contact the SMF if you feel the need to share contact details that are currently filtered by the system. Reporting a concern:

Student makes a statement or allegation about abuse or an adult

e.g. staff/volunteer

A student’s behaviour gives a cause for

concern

A student has a physical injury pre- meeting that gives

you concern

A student discloses information of a personal

nature which causes concern for their safety

and well being

Listen to the student

It is important not to break their trust and that you are able to listen, however in doing so do not agree to keeping it asecret. The SMF must be informed and social services and other authorities may also need to be notified. It isimportant to show the young person that such information will only be shared with people that will help to ensure theyoung person's safety and well-being. All information will be shared only via secure channels such as electronic mail.

Do not ask leading questions or offer opinions

These may influence the answers of the subject, and distort the evidence. Do not push for answers or suggestanything i.e." that must've made you very upset". Gently clarify what the student may be saying. If the studentchooses not to continue with the conversation, you must accept this. Do not push for further explanation.

Record the concern in writing

Be as detailed as possible, making an effort to use the exact words used in the conversation in order to be asaccurate as possible. Details such as names, dates, times, and location should all be recorded. Note down bodylangauge and any other observations.

Need to know

Contact SMF London and speak to the safeguarding officers, Jodie Wade or Joanne Griffiths, or if they are unavailableplease speak to the Senior Mentoring Coordinator, Ayesha Begum. Do not discuss with work colleagues.

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Further Support You will receive e-bulletins produced for mentors. These will contain SMF news, information regarding the academic calendar, and suggested discussion topics for that particular month. If you have any questions at any point, or become concerned about anything in your conversations, please do not hesitate to contact the SMF.

We would like to thank you very much for volunteering your time to mentor an SMF student. From past experience, it is clear that mentors make a significant impact in improving the aspirations and confidence of SMF students. We hope that you find the experience of mentoring a young person to be fun and rewarding!

SMF staff are available: Monday – Friday, 9am-5.30pm

Email: mentors@socialmobility.org.uk

If you need to contact one of our offices, you can reach the offices at: Birmingham: 0121 573 0044

Cardiff: 029 2009 9383 Glasgow: 0141 353 5640 Liverpool: 0151 953 0022 London: 0207 183 1189

Manchester: 0161 850 2809 Newcastle: 0191 580 4770

“I’ve enjoyed a rewarding experience with my mentee in which we have discussed a wide range of topics including subjects to study, different careers, and the host of exciting possibilities for their future. For the students that have questions regarding their future or just want to talk things through to reassure themselves, this is a great opportunity to help.” SMF mentor in 2019.

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Thank you