Professional mentoring programme

Birmingham City University's professional mentoring programme links students from across the University with working professionals. Many of our mentors are employed by some of the UK’s most successful businesses and could help unlock the door to your future career.

With mentors from a wide range of sectors, including finance, law, education, business, IT and the creative services, we aim to match students and graduates with someone who can give that all important industry insight. Our mentoring programmes are for students in second and third year, post-graduates and recent graduates, who are looking to gain further insight into a particular industry or career path.

The programmes run for periods of ten weeks, and once matched, there is a minimum of five hours of 1-2-1 sessions between mentor and mentee. If you are interested in being matched to a mentor please email mentoring@bcu.ac.uk for more information. 

We celebrate the year’s successes with a virtual awards ceremony, where we celebrate everyone’s participation, showcase some of the fantastic highlights from both mentees and mentors, and confirm multiple award winners!

Benefits of mentoring a student

• Spot future talent for organisation
• Develop mentoring skills
• Raise business and personal profile working with BCU
• Build CPD
• Rewarding experience supporting students
• Promote Corporate Social Responsibility within organisation
• Certificate upon completion
• Entry into BCU Mentor Awards!

Mentor testimonials

‘The highlight of the programme for me, was to see how my mentees improved from week one to week ten. Just having a positive impact on my mentees really! I would recommend you get involved to help students as sometimes you will learn something from them that can help you massively!’

‘The highlight of the programme for me, was to see how my mentees improved from week 1 to week 10. Just having a positive impact on my mentees really! I would highly recommend this programme to other students and graduates to get access to industry mentors (for FREE). Gaining access to industry experts and people that have been in your position before allows you to learn from the mentor and ask questions and more importantly improve you as a person to be more confident when entering the industry. Mentors – I would recommend you get involved to help students as sometimes you will learn something from them that can help you massively!’

‘I am passionate about education; Students, of all ages, need support, encouragement, opportunity and hope. I get a huge sense of achievement and joy helping other people. I would always encourage mentors to get involved’.

How to get involved

If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please get in touch with our mentoring team at mentoring@bcu.ac.uk.

Approved Provider Standard

In recognition of the impact our Professional Mentoring Schemes can make to the personal development of both mentees and mentors, we have achieved full accreditation status from the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation. This national quality kite mark provides evidence that the scheme is effective, safe, and professional.