Mentoring Toolkit Unwrapped launch

Employers: Can investing in mentoring shift the dial for young people?

Mentoring can be a powerful tool, providing tailored one-to-one support to help young people enhance their employment prospects.

Key Findings

Research collated in our Youth Employment Toolkit shows that mentoring has a positive, albeit modest, impact on youth employment when integrated into larger programs of support. It can also contribute to better educational outcomes, reduced youth offending, and improved mental health.

For employers, ensuring that programmes are accessible, inclusive, and well-resourced is vital. Matching mentors and mentees based on shared experiences; offering adequate training and supervision for mentors; and committing to long-term support are essential for success.

Employer Case Study: Clarion Housing Group

We spoke to Hannah Brayson and her colleagues from the Clarion Futures, the charitable arm of Clarion Housing Group, to hear about their approach:

“We recruit and offering mentoring to about 150 apprentices across our company every year who are mainly young people aged 16 to 25, and we recently set up a mentoring programme specifically for care leavers.

 

As an accredited provider, we recruit and train our mentors ourselves. Staff who want to become mentors take part in a package of training to find out more about the expectations and commitments of a mentor, and about the approach we take. Clarion Futures encourages mentees to lead their own learning, rather than have the mentor lead.  We check in with mentors and mentees on a quarterly basis to find out whether the work is on track, and that those involved are finding the relationship healthy.

 

Matching is based on a couple of factors. One is about the level of mentoring the mentor wants to give and that the mentee wants, using a seven-point scale. We try to avoid placing mentors with a mentee doing a placement or apprenticeship in the same department, so that people get the chance to mix with a member of staff outside their area of the business.

 

One of the most striking observations from our mentors is the insight it gives them into cultural diversity. One of our proudest successes, which could be attributed to our wider offering of support, including mentoring, is that our apprenticeship completion rates are around 92 percent, against the national average completion rate of 58 percent.”

Read our full case study on Clarion Housing Group.

If your organisation is interested in offering mentoring alongside your other youth employment activities, start by identifying a staff lead, setting clear goals, and finding a delivery partner to collaborate with. You can read all of our evidence-based recommendations and guidance for employers in our Toolkit Unwrapped: Mentoring edition.