The Mullany Fund Mentoring Project January 16 Mentor Training

Introduction to the Mullany Fund Aims and objectives How this project works Understanding mentoring Online mentoring structure Your mentee Mentoring do’s and don’ts Support Training Outline

The Mullany Fund supports young people who wish to go into healthcare professions. This is done through inspirational talks and an e-mentoring programme. The mentors answer the young people’s questions and provide an insight into what their role really entails and the educational routes they took to get there, alongside helping their mentee to develop study and employability skills.

Project Aims To help young people to understand the diversity of careers available in healthcare. Encourage young people to consider and aspire to a career in a healthcare profession. Increase young people’s motivation and confidence and support them to understand and gain employability skills Increase young people’s knowledge of their options for employment and/or Further or Higher Education

How does it work? Mentees will be matched online with a trained mentor working in a healthcare profession for a ten week mentoring programme. The majority of mentees are however, there are a small number of young people who are in Access scheme and are in the bracket. Mentees and mentors can contact each other regularly throughout the programme. The online platform also contains helpful resources, articles and activities.

Understanding Mentoring

What is mentoring? What is the definition of mentoring? Online mentoring is a supportive, structured relationship which helps mentees to develop their skills and achieve their goals How does Brightside do mentoring? Online Structured Safe and secure

What is a mentor? Have you ever been a mentor before? Have a think about familiar mentors and their role and qualities

Qualities of a mentor Friend Trustworthy Counsellor Empathetic Good listener Active listener Able to set boundaries Good communication skills Gives others confidence Gives constructive criticism Expert Reliable Respectful Supportive Non Judgemental Positive Honest

Qualities of a mentor Friend Trustworthy Counsellor Empathetic Good listener Active listener Able to set boundaries Good communication skills Gives others confidence Gives constructive criticism Expert Reliable Respectful Supportive Non Judgemental Positive Honest

Your role as a mentor Career or further education exploration Aspiration raising Confidence building Providing feedback to your coordinator to help improve projects in the future Mentees will have different expectations of the programme, this in part will dictate your role.

Online Mentoring Structure

The beginning Setting expectations together – Managing your mentee’s expectations Your mentee – Your mentees will have varied knowledge of further education or employability options available to them Your first message

What could you talk about? Your mentee’s interests Your mentee’s goals What it is like in your role How you entered your role What if your mentee has a different interest to your area of work? CV/Personal Statement/ UCAS Signposting to research articles General job/healthcare information Use forums to ask other mentors

Messaging and online communication The middle

Messages

Resources

Activities

Mentee Activities

Skills tracker The skills tracker allows mentees to reflect on their skills throughout the project They can mark themselves on scheme related skills during the project and compare this to a self-set target Benefits the mentees as they are able to see their improvement and develop areas that need to be worked on Benefits the mentor as they can see scores and work to develop skills Facilitates further discussion

Skills Tracker

Challenges What challenges are they currently facing? What decisions are they having to make at the moment? What are their concerns? How might they be feeling at the beginning of the relationship? What might cause them to disengage?

Understanding challenges overview Thinking about the challenges your mentee will be facing can help you to think about how you can assist as a mentor Depending on the age of your mentee they could be facing a huge range of challenges – from personal issues, to thinking about careers or to next steps in education It’s important to empathise with your mentee so they can trust your guidance and advice

Child Protection Awareness Reporting Security features Your role

Definition of child abuse* Child abuse happens when an adult inflicts harm on a child or young person, even, in some cases, if the adult’s actions are not deliberate. There are four broad categories of child abuse: physical abuse sexual abuse neglect emotional abuse. *NSPCC definition

Alarm Bells: online indicators Mentees explicitly disclosing information to you Describing unhealthy relationships Being isolated from friends and family Continual inappropriate content Dramatic changes to the way or tone in which they communicate with you Sudden disengagement from school Sudden disinterest in goals they were previously

Disclosure: Record & report Acknowledge the disclosure but do not push or lead the conversation Tell the mentee that they have done the best thing by telling you but that you are unable to keep the information to yourself Contact your project coordinator immediately

Child protection: Your role You are not a counsellor Be vigilant but don’t panic A disclosure is very unlikely to happen but it is best to be aware Your child protection officer will support you and listen to any concerns you have

Child protection: Your role Don’t: Give your personal contact details to your mentee Meet your mentee outside of the remit of the project ‘Friend’ your mentee on social media

Child Protection: security Moderation Red flag Project coordinator NSPCC

Confidentiality statement For your and your mentees safety Brightside have access to all conversations. It is important that you maintain your mentee’s anonymity and do not discuss the content of your conversations outside the remit of the project.

The end Why is it so important to end the mentoring relationship positively?

Think of the ending of the mentoring relationship as a process, rather than a single event

Summary: Good practice - dos Send resources and interesting articles Try to inspire your mentee in their career path Lead the mentoring conversation Expect some disengagement Be truthful and open Log in regularly Acknowledge the limits of your own knowledge – use the other mentors for info

And don’ts! Give up! Expect lengthy grammatically correct s! Leave a message without a response for more than a week Give your address or phone number to your mentee

Next Steps Your log-in details will be sent to you in the next day or so. Log in to the website and complete your profile. Familiarise yourself with the features of the website. You will be matched with your mentee at the end of next week. Send your first message during the week beginning 1 st February.

Any Questions?

If you have any more questions you can