10 Apr 23 Birmingham City University – Guest Article

Using sfG MentorNet To Manage The BCU Mentoring Programme, Effectively.

We are delighted to be sharing a guest article, written by sfG MentorNet client – Ellie Galvin who is the Mentoring Programme Officer at Birmingham City University.

Ellie discusses the purpose of the BCU Professional Mentoring Programme and how our sfG MentorNet online mentoring platform has made life much simpler when it comes to running and managing their programme.

BCU Mentoring – An Introduction:

The purpose of the BCU Professional Mentoring Programme is to match students and graduates with a professional mentor in the sector they would like to work in.

By participating in the programme, mentees are given the opportunity to learn from an experienced professional, network within their chosen sector and build their confidence. Mentors and mentees are also invited to join private LinkedIn groups and are asked to submit nominations for the Professional Mentoring Awards which we celebrate every September.

At BCU, we work with a pipeline of over 100 mentors from a wide range of sectors to match students from all year groups, and we have supported 500+ matches during this programme so far!

We run a total of four 10-week programmes a year, with a minimum commitment of 5 hours contact time across the duration of the programme. With no mandated schedules, administration or topics of conversation, the Professional Mentoring Programme allows mentees and mentors to work flexibly around their schedules to make the programme work best for them.

Mentee and Mentor Benefits:

Mentees who take part in the programme gain valuable experiences to boost their CV, a chance to improve their employability skills and increase their chances of securing a graduate job when they finish their degree. Mentors who take part in the programme can grow their professional network, access support and resources from the University and get the chance to boost their own professional development.

sfG MentorNet Online Mentoring Platform:

sfG MentorNet is crucial in delivering our programme. It is hugely important for the programme that we have consistent, corresponding registration forms, as well as a location where we can store student information and external employer information with equal levels of ease.

“The matching process for each programme would be considerably more difficult without the use of this platform.”

sfG MentorNet also gives our mentees and mentors total autonomy over their profiles, meaning they can edit preferences, mentee capacity and programme availability, without having to go through a BCU staff member. This also supports my workload as the Mentoring Programme Officer.

Mentoring Match-Making Functionality:

Using sfG MentorNet for our mentoring programme management allows us to efficiently record mentor and mentee information and store it securely. Although we match our participants of the programme by hand, sfG MentorNet’s matching function is a fantastic way to secure and confirm the success of a match. Once matched, participants have access to sfG MentorNet Chats, which is invaluable when safeguarding our mentees and mentors during early-stage interactions and allows those on the programme to have total control over sharing their personal details. These chats can also be monitored which is incredibly useful.

Ability to run multiple mentoring cohorts, in One Place:

We run several different Professional Mentoring streams and sfG MentorNet allows you to have separate programme setup that are fully ringfenced, protecting the data of our mentees and mentors furthermore and ensuring that everyone is appropriately assigned to the correct mentor.

SfG MentorNet Resource and Knowledge Library:

sfG MentorNet is also a useful resource hub. We have a number of important resources that mentors and mentees need to access through the programme, including training videos, awards nominations and how to set up the sfG MentorNet app on your phone. By having these stored on the platform and easily accessible, all participants have access to the resources required to get the most out of the programme.

Final Thoughts From BCU:

I genuinely believe that we could not run our Professional Mentoring Programme without sfG MentorNet. From being able to easily register students and external parties on the same, user-friendly platform, to being able to safeguard participants from the start of the programme through until its closure, sfG MentorNet acts as an incredibly useful directory, communication platform and resource hub.

Final Thoughts From sfG MentorNet:

At sfG MentorNet, we are proud to provide our customers with our secure, online mentoring system – in the knowledge that by using our platform, individuals all over the world have access to educational relationships and guidance, through a safe and user-friendly platform.

If you would like to learn more about the BCU Mentoring programme, you can visit their website.

If you are looking for a secure platform from which to manage your mentoring scheme, you can reach out to the sfG MentorNet team today for a free demonstration.