Mentoring success for our team helping young people

Through their partnership with UK charity Envision, the team, made up of employees from water2business, Pelican Business Services and GENeco, offered mentoring to 21 young people from two schools in Bristol.

During a 12-week programme, the young people identified an impactful youth social action project within their school, based on a topic they are passionate about. The mentors supported them throughout the design, development and delivery of their project, aiming to increase the young people’s key skills, confidence and determination.

The young people then presented their ideas to a judging panel in the Grand Final, where the team was awarded Mentor Team of the Year.

Mentor and Pelican Business Services' Contact Centre Team Leader, Samantha Wedlock, said: "Young people from less advantaged backgrounds are twice as likely to be out of work compared to their peers. By working with Envision, we hope to raise awareness of the importance of inclusion, and reduce this statistic.

"The goal was focused on what impact we could have on these young adult’s lives and we were so proud to see how far the young people had come from our first session up to the final.

"We were very pleased to be named Mentor Team of the Year and we are exploring further opportunities to support Envision – and to help more young people in the future!"

Following the programmes, 92% of the mentors felt they had developed their own essential skills and 94% felt more connected to their team.

The Envision programme supports the young people to develop key competencies and skills, leading to greater employability. Through experiencing different working environments and mentors sharing their own experiences, 100% of the young people demonstrated improvement in their communication and 85% demonstrated improvement in their teamwork.