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© Lee Harvey 2018, 2019, 2024, page updated 8 January, 2024

A novel of twists and surprises

Case studies- Employability and Diversity:

Mentoring of black & ethnic-minority students (NMC)

What is it?

Pairing a number of students and managers in a mentoring relationship, with the National Mentoring Consortium (NMC) handling administration and training. Duration of 6 months, with a target of meeting for 1–2 hours per week

Rationale

1. A tool that targets black and ethnic minority students and provides them with insights into how organisations work and what behaviours and interpersonal capabilities are required.
2. Develops students' preparedness for employment.
3. Gives students a look at organisations from the inside rather from the more familiar position of a customer or a member of the public .
4. Brings employees into direct working contact with this group and can thus promote a culture change.
5. Enhances organisation's reputation in targeted sector of the community.
6. Operates with the third-party guidance and support of NMC.

Prerequisites

1. Internal channels to promote the initiative to a level that delivers adequate number of motivated mentors
2. Budget to cover NMC's charge

Resource Needs of Contributing Parties

Organisation : Project manager and sufficient candidate mentors

•  NMC : Coordinator, through whom:

1. HEI link
2. Student mentees

Steps Involved

1. Contact NMC for initial information and support material; http://www.nmc-online.com. Link still works but websites dated 2012 or 2013!
2. Promote the programme internally to solicit individual managers who are motivated to become involved as mentors. Emphasise the distinctions between this programme and any existing internal staff mentoring activity.
3. Pass mentors' details to NMC (July) together with fee and data including.
4. Manager's work area.
5. Manager's location.
6. Preferred university, if any.
7. NMC allocates each mentor to a university/student within 1-hour travel distance.
8. Mentors attend 2-day training programme at university (Oct/Nov).
9. Six-month mentoring relationship (Dec-May).
10. Closing evaluation by mentor to assess effectiveness from organisational and personal perspective.

Potential Adaptations of Tool

1. NMC also supports mentoring relationships with disabled students.
2. Other intermediaries exist that provide similar services, often with a regional or single-university remit. The extent of training and support processes may differ from those of NMC.
3. Parts of the model can be used for mentoring students in any selected diversity group, although the focus on proper training for mentors is a distinctive element of the NMC programme.