1. Online Mentoring 101

2. • About Brightside
• Types of online communication
• Delivery methods
• Top five tips for delivering a successful project
Introduction

3. About Brightside
• National mentoring charity with 10 years’
experience of delivering successful projects
with over 160 partners
• We want to make sure that it’s talent, not
background, that determines the education
opportunities and careers that are available to
young people

4. About Brightside
We connect young people with role models and information,
guiding them towards opportunities and careers in which they
can make the most of their talents and skills. We do this
through:
• Online mentoring – working with organisations who want to
reach out to and inspire young people using our online
mentoring platform
• Online resources – researching and writing articles that give
young people useful, relevant and impartial information on all
aspects of education and careers

5. What is online mentoring?
• Online mentoring is a supportive, structured
relationship where mentees talk to their mentor
about their future
• It relies on communication through email or the
internet and is flexible across time and distance

6. 2 minutes
Types of online communication
6

7. Types of delivery method
• One to one
• Group
• Peer
• Blended/combined face to face and online
– Linking online mentoring to summer schools and taster days (e.g.
matching all participants with an ementor as a follow-up)
– Running online mentoring alongside face-to-face meetings
– Group online mentoring (e.g. as a follow-up to student ambassador visits
in schools)
– Using online mentoring to complement short term projects or focused
interventions with young people (e.g. enterprise competitions)

8. Clear aims and objectives
u

9. AIMS
What are the main changes you are trying to
achieve? What is to be accomplished?
OBJECTIVES
What steps are you going to take to get there?
OUTCOMES
What are the benefits to participants?

10. • Transition - 14-19 year olds linked with undergraduates or professionals,
in order to widen access to higher education, or encourage participation
in employment or post-16 training
• Retention - First year undergraduates linked with second or third year
undergraduates, in order to help support their transition to higher
education and reduce university drop-out rates
• Employability & alumni - Final or penultimate year undergraduates
linked with a professional, in order to encourage them to think about
their next career steps and to develop their employability skills

11. When’s best to launch?
a) The week students return from the summer
holidays
b) Just after the October half-term break
c) Just before the Christmas holidays
Clear timeline

12. Clear recruitment and matching
v

13. Recruitment
• Deciding on your recruitment criteria (e.g. how will
you ensure that your users fall into the widening
participation / ‘disadvantaged’ group?)
• Establishing the numbers you will aim to work with,
and coming up with a strategy in case you recruit too
many or too few mentees or mentors
• Planning your recruitment activities carefully –
freshers’ fairs, student ambassadors, workplaces,
alumni networks…
• Emphasise benefits to mentors as well as mentees!

14. 1 minute
What criteria might you match on?
6

15. • Gender
• Subject base
• Ethnicity / culture / religion
• Personality
• Age
• Interests
• Geography

16. Training
w

17. • Training methods – face to face, webinar…
• Can you build this into existing training programmes?
• Include interactive activities
• Topics to cover
– Aims and objectives: what’s in it for me? Who’s who?
– Expectations: how often should participants message?
– Building trust and starting the relationship
– Online communication
– Safeguarding: what to do/who to contact
– Practicalities: how to use the platform/website
– Support and resources available

18. Structured support
x

19. • Training resources available after session
• Do mentors and mentees know how to
contact you?
• External resources
• Mentor support networks
• Mentoring schedule – what should mentees
and mentees be talking about? When?

21. Monitoring and evaluation
y

22. • Regular communication with users
• Chase those who aren’t engaging: by
email/phone/in person/via school contact
• Check in regularly with all users – not just
those who aren’t engaging
• Motivating users – e.g. ‘Mentor Pair of the
Month’
• Evaluating your project – before/during/after

23. uClear aims and objectives
vClear recruitment and matching
wTraining
xStructured support
yMonitoring and evaluation

24. info@thebrightsidetrust.org
0207 922 7800