Introduction
Do you want to play a role in welcoming, supporting and guiding newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers in the UK? Do you want to apply your subject skills and experiences as a student in real-life? Our educational mentoring programme at Refugee Education UK is recruiting volunteer educational mentors for the new academic year and we need you!
The role
Each Volunteer Educational Mentor provides individual educational support to one young person for one hour a week, for a minimum of six months, with a focus on English, maths and general educational support. These sessions take place either in a public library local to the young person, or in the young person’s college library. Educational goals are set at the beginning of the mentoring relationship, and reviewed after six months. Mentors mostly work on the aspects of homework or classwork which young people find most challenging; at times, they also provide additional teaching and prepare resources. Mentors work closely with the REUK Educational Mentoring team who provide oversight, guidance and support.
Support a young person on their educational journey, using the best of your own academic and interpersonal skills and experiences to support them!
Why you'll love it!
While the minimum commitment is six months (26 weeks), the progress you make with your mentoring pair can be really substantial, even in this short period. At the end of this initial volunteering period, many volunteers choose to continue because of:
- the close relationship they build with their mentee as a supportive, impartial adult in their lives
- the tailored training opportunities mentors get access to
- the different REUK community events with exclusive mentor socials and wider mentor-mentee socials to celebrate your work
- the impact you will make as a volunteer, in the lives of the young people you support
To attend full induction training, other training as necessary, and complete all
relevant child protection checks.Prepare and arrange the sessions with your mentee, including sending reminders
each week.Meet with your young person for a one hour session once a week, over the period
of at least 6 months at a mutually convenient, public place, with the purpose of
supporting young people to progress in their education.To safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people you come into
contact withComplete weekly feedback for all mentoring sessions, whether delivered or
missed.Liaise with the REUK Educational Mentoring team for support in delivering
mentoring sessions where needed.Help to identify support needs of vulnerable students and ask your Mentoring
Coordinator to contact REUK’s specialist team with these concerns for assistance
from our specialist support worker.Attend a six-month mentoring review with an REUK Educational Mentoring
Coordinator.
In addition to this, our mentor development trainings and socials throughout the year means the opportunity to meet other volunteers to learn and connect within the REUK community!
Once you are past the interview, we invite all new mentors to a training session that goes through different themes of our work. From an introduction to the forced migrant community and working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to learning about the mentoring session facilitation, we make sure that you are ready to start as educational mentors.
Ongoing training and upskilling:
Once matched, you will be invited to our quarterly mentor development trainings, providing you with knowledge and resources to pertinent issues that may affect your mentoring pairs such as addressing wellbeing challenges and study skills. These opportunities are also chances to meet other more experienced mentors and connect with the wider REUK community.