Our year 9 and 10 learners have began industry mentoring with professionals from our sponsors Thames Water, Tideway, Skanska and Costain. This mentoring will take place for the duration of this term and will total number hours of employer engagement.

For the introductory session learners met with their mentors and explored why skills matter in industry, gained insight into career pathways and began to consider choices for their future careers. When discussing what he hopes to achieve from industry mentoring, year 9 learner Angel shared “I hope that I can get a better idea of what different jobs there are out there based off of what I am interested in.” 

Through mentoring learners will benefit in several ways:  
- Gaining a firsthand look into industry careers through learning about their mentors' pathway. 
- Become aware of important employability skills and how to implement them. 
- Develop important communication skills by having the opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations with their mentor. 
- Possibly open doors to work experience opportunities through mentor connections.  
- Offer valuable industry context to academic studies. 

“We hope learners use these mentoring sessions to ask as many questions as they have about their future aspirations or anything they are unsure about. Mentoring creates an amazing and unique environment that promotes open, honest and meaningful conversations,” Hollie, alumnus and Engineering apprentice at Thames Water. 

Thanks to the professionals from our sponsors Skanska, Thames, Tideway, and Costain who have dedicated their time to mentor our learners. We look forward to following their journey.