The goal of the mentoring program is to help college and trade school students succeed with their post secondary education and ultimately embark on a career.
The most important aspect of mentoring is to support students and show someone cares about them. This is accomplished through being interested in the students, periodically contacting them, following their progress or set backs and helping them navigate their education journey. Many students lack support and confidence and someone who cares can make a big difference in their life.
Traits of successful students – Students who succeed in post-secondary education, including trade schools, usually have the following traits:
- Belief in themselves and a confidence to succeed.
- An idea for a career that is based on personal interests and skills.
- A “view” of the career preferably at a workplace and through people working in the career.
- An understanding of the educational steps necessary to qualify for a first job.
- The establishment of an educational goal to accomplish their job objective.
- “Buy-in” of the goal, meaning it needs to originate or be adopted by the student and not just passed down from on high.
Mentors should strive to help students achieve these traits. Some students start their college careers with all the traits, others go through their entire college career not being certain of any of the traits. Mentors should support students as they interact with them and help them move through their educational process with the traits in mind. Mentors will generally be more successful without being heavy handed but instead being supportive and working on the traits as it makes sense and when it is a focus of the student.
The start of the mentoring process – The first step in mentoring is to show interest in the student and ascertain their interests. Students generally don’t open up to strangers, so it is perfectly acceptable to first establish a friendship before moving to the traits. The first trait to establish is the investigation of the personal interests and skills of the student. It is often surprising to learn many students really don’t think about their unique skill set or interests – sometimes no one has ever asked them these questions.
The formation of a good plan – Over time, the mentor can discern if the student has a good educational plan which reflets their skills and interests and tracks to a job career that can support a person with an income level that avoids poverty. When this exists the mentoring switches from encouraging the formation of a plan to support in the execution of the plan. The plan doesn’t need to be detailed or involved, it can be simple – for example, “I really like marketing and would like to go into a marketing career.”
Career investigation – Often students have no clear idea of what working in a career field really looks like or entails. For example, many times students have never been in an office setting. If possible, mentors should strive to arrange meetings with career people to show the student the career and to help reinforce educational goals to enter the career. It has been found that many students loose interest in their education when they encounter classes that they really have no interest in and don’t see a connection to a career path. Students are more motivated when they understand how a class can help further their career goals. Even if the class has little relevance to their career goals, students are more motivated if they understand the class is a requirement for them to obtain a degree and ultimately enter their chosen career. When a student “buys in” to the career, has seen it and wants to achieve it, motivation to succeed is higher.
Interacting with students – Today’s students seem to be more engaged with text messages or phone calls then they are with emails, but any method of corresponding is acceptable. If it works for the student the mentor should adopt it. Meetings in person can be very effective, but should take place in public places such as a coffee shop. Particularly in the case of adult males working with female students the meetings should not take place in private settings.
Be a positive force – Too many students today lack confidence. The reasons are many and include challenging home lives and poor social media influences. The most important aspect of mentoring is being supportive and positive. It is the students’ journey and a mentor can’t be expected to take the journey for the student, nor expect the student will avoid all pitfalls and life lessons. But the mentor can be a supportive adult, listening and caring. Just that alone is more powerful than a mentor realizes and is always well worth the time and effort.