Mentoring

The Careers Service at The University of Manchester has been running successful mentoring programmes since 1998. Mentoring continues to be extremely popular amongst our students and has a strong reputation on campus. We want to give as many students as possible the chance to participate and are always delighted to welcome new mentors.

For 2011-12, we are offering three levels of mentoring support: Manchester Gold, Manchester Gold Plus and Manchester Gold Online Q and A. 

On the mentor registration form, you will be able select which of the programmes you would like to get involved with.

Our longest running programme follows a traditional mentoring model of establishing one-to-one relationships between mentor and mentee. Through a combination of meetings, emails and telephone conversations, the mentor will provide support to their mentee between March and November. We estimate that Manchester Gold Mentoring will involve around 10 – 15 hours of time during this period.  

The programme is entirely flexible in terms of how, when, where and for how long mentees and mentors meet/communicate. We offer advice and guidance about how best to manage your mentoring partnership in the induction training session.

All mentors and mentees will be provided with induction training, learning resources and support from the team to enable them to make the most of mentoring.

For mentors based overseas, mentoring can be facilitated entirely online or over the telephone and inductions can also be completed online.

Enabling our students to gain any form of work experience – from site visits and work shadowing to placements and internships – positively impacts on their employability. We are aware that previous mentors have been able to provide such opportunities for their mentees and would like to formalise this activity.

If you feel that you would be able to enhance the support you can offer a mentee with an opportunity for them to gain a physical insight into your role/company/sector, we would ask you answer Yes to the option ‘Do you feel you could offer Mentoring plus benefits’ on your Mentor Registration form.

Each year we receive almost four times as many applications from mentees as we have mentors. We would like to offer more students the opportunity to access the advice and guidance of industry professionals. We also recognise that an extended mentoring relationship may not be suitable for all students. Therefore we are introducing Manchester Gold: Online Q and A.

This will be facilitated through our CareersLink system. Mentors will be able to specify, when registering as a mentor, how many emails they will be willing to receive per month. Students will only be able to send one email to two different mentors every month.

Mentors from all sectors and roles, any size of organisation, in any location are invited to get involved. 

Mentees from all degree disciplines and year groups are eligible to apply for Manchester Gold Mentoring/Plus and also access the online Q and A.

Within Manchester Gold Mentoring, we offer specialist strands of mentoring for specific student groups:

• Disabled students
• Black & minority ethnic students
• LGBT students
• International students wanting to work in the UK
• Female students applying to traditionally male-dominated sectors

Mentors will be able to specify on the registration form whether they would prefer to mentor students from specific target groups or have additional requirements (degree discipline, UCAS points, interests etc

For 2011/12, we would like to welcome mentors who completed an internship prior to securing graduate employment to specifically support current students in applying for internships and placements. We would also like to welcome mentors who are able to support international students aiming to remain in the UK after graduation.