Online Mentoring 101

• About Brightside• Types of online communication• Delivery methods• Top five tips for delivering a successful project

Introduction

About Brightside

• National mentoring charity with 10 years’ experience of delivering successful projects with over 160 partners

• We want to make sure that it’s talent, not background, that determines the education opportunities and careers that are available to young people

About BrightsideWe connect young people with role models and information, guiding them towards opportunities and careers in which they can make the most of their talents and skills. We do this through:

• Online mentoring – working with organisations who want to reach out to and inspire young people using our online mentoring platform

• Online resources – researching and writing articles that give young people useful, relevant and impartial information on all aspects of education and careers

What is online mentoring?

• Online mentoring is a supportive, structured relationship where mentees talk to their mentor about their future

• It relies on communication through email or the internet and is flexible across time and distance

2 minutes Types of online communication

6

Types of delivery method• One to one• Group• Peer• Blended/combined face to face and online

– Linking online mentoring to summer schools and taster days (e.g. matching all participants with an ementor as a follow-up)

– Running online mentoring alongside face-to-face meetings– Group online mentoring (e.g. as a follow-up to student ambassador visits

in schools)– Using online mentoring to complement short term projects or focused

interventions with young people (e.g. enterprise competitions)

Clear aims and objectivesu

AIMSWhat are the main changes you are trying to achieve? What is to be accomplished?

OBJECTIVESWhat steps are you going to take to get there?

OUTCOMESWhat are the benefits to participants?

• Transition - 14-19 year olds linked with undergraduates or professionals, in order to widen access to higher education, or encourage participation in employment or post-16 training

• Retention - First year undergraduates linked with second or third year undergraduates, in order to help support their transition to higher education and reduce university drop-out rates

• Employability & alumni - Final or penultimate year undergraduates linked with a professional, in order to encourage them to think about their next career steps and to develop their employability skills

When’s best to launch?

a) The week students return from the summer holidaysb) Just after the October half-term breakc) Just before the Christmas holidays

Clear timeline

Clear recruitment and matchingv

Recruitment

• Deciding on your recruitment criteria (e.g. how will you ensure that your users fall into the widening participation / ‘disadvantaged’ group?)

• Establishing the numbers you will aim to work with, and coming up with a strategy in case you recruit too many or too few mentees or mentors

• Planning your recruitment activities carefully – freshers’ fairs, student ambassadors, workplaces, alumni networks…

• Emphasise benefits to mentors as well as mentees!

1 minute What criteria might you match on?

6

• Gender• Subject base• Ethnicity / culture / religion• Personality• Age• Interests • Geography

Trainingw

• Training methods – face to face, webinar…

• Can you build this into existing training programmes?

• Include interactive activities

• Topics to cover– Aims and objectives: what’s in it for me? Who’s who?

– Expectations: how often should participants message?

– Building trust and starting the relationship

– Online communication

– Safeguarding: what to do/who to contact

– Practicalities: how to use the platform/website

– Support and resources available

Structured supportx

• Training resources available after session• Do mentors and mentees know how to

contact you?• External resources• Mentor support networks• Mentoring schedule – what should mentees

and mentees be talking about? When?

Monitoring and evaluationy

• Regular communication with users• Chase those who aren’t engaging: by

email/phone/in person/via school contact• Check in regularly with all users – not just

those who aren’t engaging• Motivating users – e.g. ‘Mentor Pair of the

Month’• Evaluating your project – before/during/after

uClear aims and objectives

vClear recruitment and matching

wTraining

xStructured support

yMonitoring and evaluation

info@thebrightsidetrust.org0207 922 7800