SPEED MENTORING

Invite business leaders from your local community to meet with small groups of students.

What is Speed Mentoring?

Speed Mentoring encounters allow educators to invite employers from their local community into schools to engage with students and answer questions.

Business leaders participate in a series of short, focused conversations about specific career questions and topics. Business leaders meet a limited number of mentees in 10-minute time slots each to provide coaching.

The aim is to introduce young people to a wide range of business leaders, broadening their horizons and encouraging them to aim high.

Speed mentoring should be set up as a student-led, ‘carousel’-style activity, where groups of students move between different business leaders, with pre-prepared quick-fire questions. Each group will talk to a business leader for a short period of time (commonly 5-15 minutes) about their job/career. At the end of the period, they will move on to a further business leader, circulating a number of different volunteers over the duration of the event.

What is the impact of Speed Mentoring?

Speed mentoring offers students the opportunity to ask meaningful questions to a range of different business leaders, to gain an insight into their working life and receive advice on the skills that are needed to be successful in today’s economy.

This is a unique chance for students to get coaching from business leaders in their community and can have a significant impact on their future life choices.

Recent research by the Education and Employers Research, ‘How to Make the Most of Career Events with Employers’, found that, of the common forms of careers encounters, Speed Mentoring is often the most effective in supporting students.

‘You’re exploring the map and, although the map is too big and too complex to explore the whole thing, you can get spotlights on the map which help to understand specific career options and narrow it down’ -Chris Percy, Strategy and Research Contractor, the Careers and Enterprise Company.

‘They are working with an adult who is not a teacher and not their parent, who they’ll meet at the workplace, at school, or in a neutral venue’- Lorraine Lawson, Brokerage Manager, Camden Learning.

This encounter will help and support you to meet the following Gatsby Benchmarks:

Benchmark 1: You will be able to offer a stable careers programme

Our digital platform enables time-poor educators to create a structured careers programme quickly and simply. We provide educators with clear guidance on the types of events they can book and, using smart algorithms, make recommendations on which speakers and volunteers will have the most impact.

Benchmark 3: You will be addressing the needs of each pupil

With our advanced filtering system, we put control of the student-employer encounter firmly in the hands of the educator, ensuring they can select speakers and workplace visits which are best suited to inspire their students. Educators can filter by industry, gender, race, company revenue and growth.

Benchmark 5: You will offer encounters with employers and employees

Our service connects children and young people directly with business leaders from their local communities. Our digital platform recommends a varied programme of careers encounters including career talks, speed mentoring, enterprise activities and workplace visits, all of which can be booked instantly through our platform.

Benchmark 7: You will offer encounters with further and higher education

We enable educators to connect with a wide range of employers and employees who can speak to young people about their career path. By providing a diverse perspective on how they have approached their careers, students will be able to understand the different academic and vocational routes that are available to them.

Benchmark 8: You will be offering personal guidance

Using our clever digital platform, Founders4Schools is able to take into consideration the individual needs of educators and students. This means we can guide them towards encounter types and potential speakers to ensure they have the greatest impact.

Curricular Mapping and useful research

From our research we found that this encounter type is most appropriate for the development of young people from 11 and up. Older pupils approaching decisions about post-16 or post-18 education and training participate in workshops targeting specific career readiness skills.

Get Started

We understand that your time as an educator is limited, which is why we have made our service as quick and easy as possible.

We will reach out to Business Leaders on your behalf and update you every step of the way, until the visit is completed.

Simply click the link below to search for Business Leaders in your local area and get started.