Mentoring is the provision of personal support, encouragement, and inspiration to young people. Mentoring can focus on soft skills such as motivation and confidence, as well as more tangible results such as developing life skills, career goals and achieving employment.
A mentoring relationship allows a child to feel heard and supported in all spheres, not just academically. Mentoring sessions can often form a foundation for a more formal learning relationship as the potential mental health benefits of outdoor learning and alternative provision contribute to building self-esteem, resilience, and the confidence to take risks. The value of such attributes is immeasurable, especially when attempting to increase academic engagement and attainment. A mentoring relationship identifies common interests, allows for discussion of fears and worries, and sharing life experiences, including successes and challenges experienced along the way.
Evidence suggests that the presence of a mentor in a young person’s life can be the difference between academic success and a feeling of failure, making healthy decisions or engaging in risky behaviours, and realizing their potential as opposed to not achieving their dreams.
Mentoring sessions, like tutoring sessions are tailored to your young person’s needs and goals. They could provide support homework support, or enable young people to gain industry recognised qualifications such as food hygiene or first aid and build a CV. They could be used to support a young person to access their community, negotiating public transport and busy shopping centres without feeling alone or overwhelmed, or could provide scaffolded access to new and resilience building experiences such as sports and hobbies or enjoying the natural world.