Pupil mentoring

Mentoring a young person can be one of the most rewarding ways to develop your skills and experience. A mentoring partnership combines staff development with helping to support, encourage and equip young people with the skills to compete in the employment market.

What happens?

What commitment is required?

You will need to make sure that you can commit to one or two hours a month for one year. This excludes the summer months (June – August). Volunteers need to consider travelling time and preparation time as well. There will also be some training and ongoing development if needed.

To find out more about how you can get involved in Pupil mentoring and how Business in the Community Scotland can work with you, call us on 0131 451 1100, email  info.scotland@bitc.org.uk or visit www.bitc.org.uk/scotland.

A member of staff is paired up with a young person, and mentors them one-to-one. The aim of the programme is to build the young person’s confidence and support them into a positive work or training destination.

Why get involved?

Many employees are involved in pupil mentoring because it helps to:

  • Boost their confidence, morale and job satisfaction

  • Develop their communication skills

  • Develop influencing skills and build good relationships

  • Strengthen their feedback skills

  • Understand people, their values and different perspectives

  • Meet employees from other businesses.

For young people the benefits will depend on their individual needs but include:

  • Gaining an insight into the world of work

  • Boosting their confidence and self-belief

  • Developing their communication and soft skills

  • Easing the transition from school to work

  • Advice and guidance on CV’s, interviews, etc

  • Raising pupil expectations and encourage life-long learning.

Who is mentoring offered to?

Schools target young people in their 3rd year and upwards who are:

  • Doing okay, maybe not participating fully, their grades are not great but they are not trouble makers; and/or

  • Young people who just need a little bit of support to help them make a potentially difficult transition in their life.

What training do pupil mentors get?

Business in the Community Scotland provide a two hour training workshop, which includes sessions on:

  • What mentoring is

  • The role of the mentor

  • Models of mentoring

  • Skills and qualities for mentoring

  • Specific skills e.g. listening, questioning, feeding back, etc.

  • Child protection

  • Challenges

  • The mentoring relationship.

  • Disclosure requirements

Because mentoring is a one-to-one relationship, mentors are required to obtain "PVG disclosure" from Disclosure Scotland. BITC Scotland will make all the arrangements to ensure this happens.