The Youth Group’s Mentor Me project aims to deliver 100,000 mentoring sessions this year, to help improve the career prospects for young people aged between 18 and 30 in the UK.
It has already added 12,000 new mentors to its database in the past few weeks alone; but needs more to meets its ambitious goal. “We know the current economic, education and employment landscape for young people is one of the most challenging and unpredictable in over twenty years. That’s why it’s essential we provide young people with the support and advice they need to help them navigate the modern world of work,” pointed out The Youth Group’s CEO Jack Parsons.
The Youth Group, founded by Parsons who is also known as the UK’s Chief Youth Officer, provides young people with the tools they really need to get ahead and grow in work. It also actively helps government, enterprise and education to engage, recruit and develop youth, through initiatives like the UK Kickstart scheme.
MENTOR ME FOR YOUTH
The Youth Group’s latest initiative Mentor Me is an innovative new mentoring programme that provides young people with an industry-expert mentor to provide meaningful careers advice and key insights. The free scheme gives young people access to an amazing calibre of business leaders and industry experts through 15-45 minute virtual sessions.
According to Parsons, so many young people face uncertainty about their future, having left college/university with inadequate careers advice. “A few hours of careers advice in secondary school is inadequate; it undervalues the importance of giving young people the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their future,” he noted. “Young people don’t need an advisor, they need a mentor.”
MEANINGFUL EXPERT ADVICE
Parson’s personal mission is to knock down doors for others to walk through after his tough upbringing and lack of career support from school. Having learnt from failure, he is now motivated to make a real impact for young people. He wants to provide young people with a sense of excitement – as well as direction– regarding career pathways available to them. “We need to start offering careers advice from industry professionals who have already made it in their field,” explained Parsons.
He believes that mentors can be a great way to access knowledge and get help from someone who has had success in their personal and professional life. But finding a mentor can be challenging without a professional network to lean on; most young people don’t have one, which led to the creation of Mentor Me.
“By 2050, it’s predicted that over 80% of all the jobs in the world will have fundamentally changed. That means we need to prepare our young people for this changing future today,” added Parsons. “Mentor Me matches young people to an industry-expert; who has been verified by us and books a meeting between the young person and the mentor, without any big hoops to jump through. Mentors can provide meaningful careers advice, offer their insight, and answer the burning questions that young people want answers to.”
PROVIDING HOPE & INSPIRATION
Commenting on the new initiative, Marta Mazur, Head of Youth at The Youth Group, stated: “It’s great to see how just one session with a mentor can bring hope and inspiration for our youth. To have someone pay attention to our needs and believe in us; even if we sometimes find it difficult can be a real game changer. Through mentoring we help youth understand and unleash the huge potential that they all have.”
Both Mazur and Parsons are calling on industry professionals with 15-45 minutes to spare to help make an enormous difference in the lives of young people by becoming a mentor. To join the growing community of mentors, which includes business titans like Craig Fenton, COO of Google UK and Raul Cruz, Managing Director at Verizon Media, click here.
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