Mentor Handbook

Aspiring Professional Programme

Dear mentor,

We are delighted to welcome you to this year’s school-age mentoring programme.

We look forward to working with you over the coming year, and we hope you are
excited to begin your mentoring journey. We will be assisting you over the next 9 to
10 months and this handbook provides an outline as you begin preparing for the start
of your mentoring relationship.

This handbook includes information to help you understand who your SMF mentees
are, and the expectations of a mentor in supporting them.

Thank you for the time and support you will offer to your SMF mentee. We look
forward to working with you!

With very best wishes,

The SMF Mentoring Team

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 Contents

Intro to the Social Mobility Foundation .......................................................... 4

SMF mentee profile ............................................................................................. 4
Your role as a mentor .......................................................................................... 5
Mentoring cycle .................................................................................................... 5
Creating a successful mentoring relationship ........................................... 10
Contacting your mentee................................................................................... 11
Mentor meet-up virtual events....................................................................... 11
Phone calls and in-person meetings ............................................................ 12
Monitoring engagement: the prompt system ............................................ 13
Close of the cycle ............................................................................................... 15
Safeguarding and child protection................................................................ 16
Further support ................................................................................................... 17

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 Intro to the Social Mobility Foundation
The Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) is a charity that aims to make a practical
improvement in social mobility for high-achieving young people from low-income
backgrounds. With the help of professionals and firms, we support over 2000 new
school aged students each year, who have the academic ability to flourish in the top
universities and professions but lack the encouragement and networks to help them
get there. The SMF then supports these students through our Aspiring Professionals
Programme during school, university and right up until they enter employment. This
support includes: mentoring, skills sessions, work experience, and university or job
application support.

The mentoring scheme is just one element of our Aspiring Professionals Programme.
The aim of the mentoring scheme is to provide students with 1:1 access to a
professional mentor who can advise and support them to develop key skills and areas
of knowledge around the sector or profession they would like to enter. Mentors
support students in a variety of ways, such as providing insight into a specific career
or industry, helping students to make informed decisions about their post-18 options,
and practice key employability skills as they move through sixth form/S5-S6 and
beyond.
SMF mentee profile

Aged 16-17. In Year 12/13/S5 and

predicted ABB at A Level or ABBB in
Highers

EITHER: personally eligible for Free School

Meals during secondary schooling

OR: the first generation in their family to

attend university in the UK AND attended a
school during GCSE/National 5 with a
higher than average proportion of students
eligible for Free School Meals

You can find out more about the eligibility

criteria for SMF students on our website.

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 Your role as a mentor
As a mentor you will be supporting a school aged student by giving them the
opportunity to have a 1:1 relationship with a professional in their chosen career sector.
This will be an invaluable experience for our students, who may not otherwise have
any direct access to someone in their desired profession who can provide guidance
and support.

You will be paired with a mentee based on your professional background and the
career sector your mentee expressed an interest in upon application. You will be
supporting your mentee during a crucial period in their time at school as they prepare
for university or their post-18 options.

We understand that each mentoring relationship will look different, with mentors
utilising different approaches to help mentees realise their goals. We are not
prescriptive and encourage mentors to approach mentoring in a way that best suits
them and their mentee. However, we do expect pairs to communicate at least once
a fortnight via our platform MentorNet.

You will receive monthly bulletins throughout the year that provide insight into your
mentees’ journey with the SMF, reminders about upcoming deadlines relevant to your
mentee, as well as suggested topics for you and your mentee to discuss. Some key
topics include setting SMART goals, practising professional communication,
commercial awareness and more.

Mentoring cycle

April-May Sept-Oct Jan

Mentees receiving
Mentoring relationship
university offers.
set up on online UCAS deadline 15
Mentoring relationship
mentoring site. October for Oxbridge,
officially coming to an
Medicine, and Veterinary
Initial conversations with end, but pairs are
Science courses.
mentee to become welcome to stay in
Recommended deadline
familiar with them and touch. Completing
for all university
set objectives. evaluations.
applications.

Jun-Aug Nov-Dec
Mentees focusing on work
experience and internships
throughout summer holidays. Preparing for university
interviews and school
Mentees starting to research
exams. Looking ahead to
different universities and
university life and beyond.
courses.

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 Getting started

Step one
As all mentees are under-18, we ask all mentors to become familiarised with our
Safeguarding Policy. All your emails will go via our secure online mentoring site and
are stored. If there is ever any sensitive information shared or you are unsure on a
particular matter, please do email us at safeguarding@socialmobility.org.uk so we are
able to support you and your mentee.

Step two
The SMF will have matched you with a mentee based on your professional
background and the mentee’s career interests. We will take into consideration other
factors to make a best possible match e.g. university attended and career goals. You
will then be set up on our online mentoring site (read more about this in the Technical
Guide section). The email address you have provided us will be registered with the
system and you will receive an automated email to confirm your registration. You will
also receive a separate automated email a few days later confirming that you have
been matched to your mentee. If you would like to change the email address that the
SMF uses to contact you, please get in touch with the SMF mentoring team.

Step three
You will receive a short online pre-mentoring evaluation form which we would
appreciate you completing. This helps us to evaluate the programme and support
ongoing improvements to the mentoring programme and SMF programmes more
broadly.

Step four
Once you have received the details of your mentee, you are free to begin mentoring!
As the mentor, we ask that you make the initial contact with your mentee. This initial
message could include an introduction to yourself, your career background, your
university studies, and any hobbies to help them get to know you better. Don’t forget
to ask your mentee a few questions to prompt conversation!

Step five
Within the first few emails it is useful to start setting goals with your mentee. You will
want to discuss with your mentee the Building My Future: The Toolkit to agree on
objectives for your mentoring relationship.

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 Building My Future: The Toolkit

The SMF has developed a key set of competencies, called Building My Future: The
Toolkit, which outline skills and knowledge to help students progress into Higher
Education and employment. SMF programmes aim to deliver activities which help
students improve in these competency areas. Mentoring is a core part of this support
and has the potential to make a significant contribution dependent on the interests,
experience, and needs of the mentor and mentee.

Below are the five areas of our Building My Future: The Toolkit that the mentoring
programme will utilise to support students. Having a professional mentor offers
students the opportunity to develop the following skills and knowledge areas.
Students will already be familiar with this framework so do use this to guide setting
goals for your mentoring relationship.

The following descriptions detail how as a mentor you can support your mentee in
developing each competency area. These are meant to be guidelines to help focus

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and set the expectations. We do not expect mentors to have expert knowledge in all
these areas, but rather be able to provide sound advice and guidance to your mentee
on where to go to find out more and act as a facilitator in supporting them to
independently find out more.

Building My Career

•Access to a professional mentor is an invaluable opportunity for students to get an

insight into a potential career path. Students won’t have access to family and friends
working in a professional context to provide support and information regarding the
career path they are considering.
•As a professional mentor, you can support your mentee by providing insights and
knowledge about your career and the skills valued through your experiences in your
current role, past experiences, and your future goals.

Building My Options for Education and Work

•You can support your mentee in managing their post-18 options by discussing with
your mentee how you managed your post-18 options and how these have impacted
your career path, and your thoughts about points to consider.
•Majority of students have the goal to enter university, so you can support your mentee
as they research choices and courses, entry requirements, and understanding
university life and study. For those not considering university, dicuss different post-18
options available to them e.g. high-level apprenticeships or school leaver programmes
(Level 4 or above).

Building My Network

•Communicating regularly with a mentor will help mentees to develop their professional
networking skills. It is an opportunity for mentees to work on building rapport and
teamwork which are important in professional networks.

Building My Communication

•Communicating with others in a professional context is a skill that you can support
your mentee to develop. Ensuring written communication is clear, concise, and written
in a professional manner will be key to students as they move into university and in a
professional setting.

Building My Self-Awareness

•Mentees are expected to work on taking responsibility for their own professional
development. We recommend mentoring pairs being in contact with each other at
least once every two weeks, and mentees will work on developing their
professionalism and reflectiveness with the support of a mentor.
•Through the mentoring, it will hopefully support students in becoming more confident
and resilient towards their career goals.

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 SMART goals

Deciding upon some key objectives within the first two weeks of the mentorship will
help keep your mentoring exchanges focused and effective. Find out about your
mentee's ambitions, interests, skills, and motivations. Understanding their goals and
priorities will help you frame discussions and create realistic short, medium, and long-
term objectives.

Using the SMART and other models below as a guide, you can discuss possible
SMART goals with your mentee.

Specific What does my mentee wish to accomplish on the

programme and why?
Measurable Create objectives that you can track to keep your mentee
on track for their goals.
Achievable While a goal should stretch your mentee, make sure that
they’re achievable.
Relevant What specifically does the goal relate too? Where does
this fit with their career goals?
Time Bound What can you reasonably achieve with your mentee over
the course of the programme.

This may be the first time your student has set themselves SMART goals. It is,
therefore, helpful if the mentor takes the lead since objective-setting may be new to
the mentee. You could start the process by:
 Asking your mentee what they hope to achieve through this programme.
 Asking which areas related to careers and university support they feel least
confident in.

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 Creating a successful mentoring relationship
Your mentee will receive a handbook similar to this and will have attended a launch
event to guide them through the different elements of the programme. We expect
mentees to engage in all aspects of the programme and have informed them that they
are equally responsible for developing the relationship with their mentor. If, however,
your mentee is less responsive than desired, please persevere with your attempts to
re-engage them. We can support you with this if it is outside of the expected response
timeframe.

Tips for a successful mentoring relationship

 Focus on developing a rapport. Don’t worry about what you think a mentor ‘should
be’ – just be yourself! Make some time to get to know your mentee personally.
 Sharing your own experiences can be a really good starting point for increasing
your mentee’s knowledge of a professional career or sector. It may be useful to put
yourself ‘in their shoes’ and consider what it would be helpful for them to know or
what you would have benefitted from knowing at that life stage.
 Ask your mentee open-ended questions that will require detailed answers and
avoid asking all your questions at once as this may overwhelm them.
 Don’t worry if your mentee asks you about a topic you don’t know much about –
you could ask a colleague with expertise in that field, suggest resources that your
mentee can look at for research, or get in touch with the SMF for support. You
aren’t expected to have all the answers, but rather to be a source of logical
guidance.

A good mentor will:

 Encourage their mentee to develop a professional writing style. Most of our

mentees will have no experience of communicating via email with a professional.
We have provided them with a guide, so do help them to adopt a formal (but
friendly) tone and style.
 Work to increase their mentee’s confidence, knowledge, and aspirations.
 Be patient with their mentee as they navigate having a professional mentor for the
first time.
 Dispel misconceptions concerning the profession that they are interested in.
Without any contact with someone working in the profession, mentees may base
their impressions on media coverage or TV shows.
 Help them to thoroughly research their options. For example, there are many
myths concerning university entrance and tuition fees, which can put students off
applying.
 Be open to your own feedback, and requests for clarification from your mentee.

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 Contacting your mentee
Making time for mentoring
Mentoring is the only part of the SMF programme that provides consistent support for
our students throughout the year, regardless of the other opportunities open to them.
We ask that our mentoring pairs keep in touch with each other a minimum of once
every two weeks for the duration of the programme.

We ask students to let you know if they are unable to contact you for a given time
period, e.g. due to needing to focus on revision or being on holiday. We appreciate
that all our mentors are busy professionals, but it will be helpful for your mentee if you
are able to let them know when you are entering particularly busy periods and may
not be able to get in touch. Sending them a short note to give them an estimate of
when you will be able to write a full response will ensure that they know that you
have not forgotten about them!

Mentor meet-up virtual events

A brilliant way to boost your mentoring relationship is by attending an online mentor
meet-up event. These events are run each month throughout the mentoring cycle, and
they are hosted by the SMF team on Zoom. During the event, there will be a brief
introduction from the SMF team, and you then have up to 45 minutes in a 1:1 breakout
room with your mentee. The SMF run mentor meetups will be the only opportunity to
have a video call with your mentee, as unsupervised video calls are not allowed under
our safeguarding policy.

Why attend?
 Practice additional skills with your mentee (e.g. meeting agendas, communicating
in meetings, interview or presentation practice, using Zoom)
 Break the ice and put a face to the name
 Boost and strengthen your mentoring relationship
 A great way to check in and keep in contact throughout the cycle

How to attend?
 The SMF team will inform you of the mentor meet-up dates and will send the
registration link a month in advance.
 Discuss with your mentee if the two of you would like to attend the event together
and agree the most convenient time slot
 You will then register yourself and your mentee on our Doodle Poll event
registration link
 The SMF will confirm with your student that they are able to attend and will then
email you both the Zoom link.

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 Phone calls and in-person meetings
Phone calls
The SMF team are very happy to help facilitate a traditional phone call for you. Please
do not exchange phone numbers over the MentorNet portal as this will be flagged by
the system and your message may be delayed as it is held back for moderation. The
SMF will facilitate the exchange of numbers.

How to arrange a phone call?

 Discuss and provisionally agree a convenient date/time to call your mentee
 Email the SMF team the proposed details with 5 days’ notice so that we have a
record and can check we have appropriate parent/guardian consent
 The SMF team will then email you with your mentee’s phone number
 Please make the call from a withheld number and resume contact over the
MentorNet portal after the call to comply with our safeguarding policy
 You will need to notify the SMF of any future calls you have so that we have a
record of this

Meeting in person
If you are based in the same city as your mentee, we are also happy for you to arrange
an in-person meeting. The SMF will need to obtain parent/guardian consent for the
meeting. The only exception to this is if the meeting is located at your workplace, in
which case we will not need to obtain consent. However, you must still notify the SMF
of the meeting details so that there is a record of this.

How to arrange an in-person meeting?

 Discuss and provisionally agree a convenient date/time/location to meet with your
mentee
 Email the SMF team the proposed details with 5 days’ notice so that we can obtain
appropriate parent/guardian consent for any meetings outside of your workplace
 The SMF team will then email you to confirm whether the meeting can go ahead

Remember: Due to our safeguarding policy, we do not allow unsupervised 1:1 video
calls and the SMF must be informed of the time and date of all phone calls or in-person
meet
rnative to meeting face ups in order to confirm parental consent.
to face.

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 Monitoring engagement: the prompt system
We have developed a prompt system to promote regular communication between
mentors and mentees in line with our expectations of one email exchange between
pairs every two weeks. This is to ensure that mentoring partners are regularly
engaging with each other, which is important to the success of the mentoring
relationship.

If our online site notices that you or your mentee have not exchanged an email in two
weeks, we will send out a prompt email to the person who is yet to respond to the
last email, reminding them that they need to reply.

If after three successive prompts, there has been no response, the SMF may look to
reassign the individuals in the mentoring pair. If it is the mentee that has been
unresponsive, the SMF will investigate further to see if it is appropriate to remove the
student from the mentoring programme (they will remain a part of the wider SMF
programmes). The mentor will move to our reserve pool to be matched to another
mentee at the earliest opportunity. However, it may not always be possible to find a
suitable rematch during the mentoring cycle.

If it is the mentor that has been unresponsive, we will follow up with you to check in
with you and support you if you have any difficulties in mentoring, or a simple
reminder if you have been busy! If you are unable to commit to the mentoring in the
midst of the programme, we will look to reassign your mentee to another mentor and
close the current mentoring relationship between mentor-mentee.

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 Technical guide: MentorNet
https://smf.sfgmentornet.com
The SMF uses an online
portal to manage the
mentoring relationships
called MentorNet.

You can also access the

portal as an app on your
smartphone, allowing
you to continue your
mentoring relationship
on the go.

At a glance:
 All messages sent using this site are recorded and can be read by the SMF (for
safeguarding purposes).
 Your email will be registered with the site but will not be shared with your
mentee.
 You can log in either using your username or email address.
 Make sure to mark the MentorNet email address (noreply@sfgmentornet.com)
to your ‘safe senders’ list in your email system to avoid notifications going into your
junk folder.

First steps:
 You can access MentorNet either on a computer browser using this link:
https://smf.sfgmentornet.com or via the smart phone app which you can find by
searching for sfG MentorNet in the app store.
 To send your introductory message to your mentee, login to the portal and create
a new message.
 Once they reply, you will receive an email notification into your inbox with the
content of their message. You will need to login to the portal each time to respond
and click on the messages icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen. You can
choose to ‘create new’ messages or reply.
 You can send attachments i.e., personal statements to your mentee. On your
mentee’s profile, click on the ‘Documents’ tab then ‘upload file’ – these can only be
viewed by you, your mentee, and the SMF administrators. You can also download
any documents sent to you by your mentee too!

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MentorNet conversations are monitored for safeguarding reasons. You may receive
the following notification:

This means one of the SMF team are reviewing your message for restricted content
and will complete this within a day or two.

Please read our MentorNet ‘Quick Start Guide’ for further detail on how to use the
portal to communicate with your mentee and access our online resources and news
bulletins.

In line with our Safeguarding Policy, we ask that you do not share personal
contact details with your mentee including email addresses or phone numbers.

Close of the cycle

Our mentoring cycle starts in the Spring and ends in January of the following year. By
this time, students should have already sent off their university application through
UCAS.

At the official close of the cycle, we will close all mentoring relationships on
MentorNet. After we close the mentoring cycle, there are no requirements from us to
continue messaging with your mentee.

When the mentoring cycle does close, we will get in touch with you to ask whether
you and your mentee would like to stay in touch via personal email addresses. We
first make sure that their parent/guardian gives consent for this for safeguarding
reasons if they are still under-18, and we will then exchange your email addresses.

There is no obligation to keep in touch, however, we have seen that mentoring

relationships can continue to flourish even after the mentee leaves school, enters
university and prepares graduate applications in the future. You are likely the first
person your mentee has spoken to and connected with in their desired sector.

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 Safeguarding and child protection
As all SMF mentees are under 18 when they join the mentoring programme, we have
guidelines in place for safeguarding and child protection. For more information on this,
please find our Safeguarding Policy here. The SMF mentoring website is designed to
ensure that all communication is carried out in a supervised environment. Personal
contact details are filtered, all attachments are checked, and messages are stored
centrally to be monitored by the Mentoring Team. These provisions should not be
restrictive, but please contact the SMF if you feel the need to share contact details
that are currently filtered by the system.

Reporting a concern:

Student makes a A student has a A student discloses

A student’s
statement or allegation physical injury pre- information of a personal
behaviour gives a
about abuse or an adult meeting that gives nature which causes concern
cause for concern
e.g. staff/volunteer you concern for their safety and well being

Listen to the student

It is important not to break their trust and that you are able to listen, however in doing so do not agree to keeping it a
secret. The SMF must be informed and social services and other authorities may also need to be notified. It is important to
show the young person that such information will only be shared with people that will help to ensure the young person's
safety and well-being. All information will be shared only via secure channels such as electronic mail.

Do not ask leading questions or offer opinions

These may influence the answers of the subject, and distort the evidence. Do not push for answers or suggest anything
i.e." that must've made you very upset". Gently clarify what the student may be saying. If the student chooses not to
continue with the conversation, you must accept this. Do not push for further explanation.

Record the concern in writing

Be as detailed as possible, making an effort to use the exact words used in the conversation in order to be as accurate as
possible. Details such as names, dates, times, and location should all be recorded. Note down body langauge and any
other observations.

Need to know
Contact SMF our safeguarding officer on safeguarding@socialmobility.org.uk. Do not discuss with work colleagues.

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 Further support
If you have any questions at any point, or become concerned about anything in your
conversations, please do let us know.

SMF staff are available:

Monday – Friday, 9am-5.30pm
Email: mentors@socialmobility.org.uk
Phone: 0207 183 1189 ext. 2

Thank you for volunteering your time to work with our students. Mentors make a
significant impact in improving the aspirations, confidence, and career trajectory of
SMF students and without our volunteers this work would not be possible.

Best wishes,
The SMF Mentoring Team

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 “I’ve enjoyed a rewarding experience with my mentee in which we have discussed a
wide range of topics including subjects to study, different careers, and the host of
exciting possibilities for their future. For the students that have questions regarding
their future or just want to talk things through to reassure themselves, this is a great
opportunity to help.” SMF mentor.

“Whenever I was doubtful of

my choices, I had the chance
to ask someone who had
already been through the
process. Having their
guidance made my decision-
making a lot easier.”
Anastasia (mentee)

“The words of encouragement from my mentor inspired me to never give

up. I was able to move forward with wider decisions.” Raiyan (mentee)

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“I have enjoyed being involved in the SMF mentoring scheme and supporting an A level
student as they apply to university. I have tried to put myself in their shoes and see the
process from their perspective. This has been a useful experience for my own
development.” SMF mentor

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