In the ever-evolving landscape of technology and education, mentorship plays a pivotal role in helping to shaping the future of the industry. As technology progresses at a breakneck pace, continuous learning and effective mentorship have become essential components for success. Mentorship not only bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application but also fosters a collaborative environment where innovation thrives.

I am just ending a 2 month STEM mentoring programme where I have been mentoring students through a STEM platform. This has been an interesting and sometimes difficult way of mentoring someone as I am normally mentoring face to face or via a video conference call.

Interesting and sometimes difficult as you don’t really know the person on the other side of the screen as you might normally to help tailor advice and read body language to gauge if your advice and guidance is resonating. You can only ask and respond to questions which make you think longer and harder about the language and tone of your questions and answers, then sending them in and awaiting approval via the monitored and recorded platform. The great thing about the platform I was using was the help and guidance from the central team, stimulating conversation through suggesting topics to discuss for both mentor and mentee.

This experience has been educational to me as I hope as much for the students I have been helping. I have learnt more about considering my responses in a mentoring session and about the value and outcomes of the answers I have given, which I will be taking into my other mentoring sessions.

The main lesson for me has been about being more succinct in a written response and writing in a way to keep it engaging for the students. They wanted to hear about experiences have been and what lessons have been learnt. Tailoring and customising advice and support to help them learn to overcome specific challenges, for instance mastering a new programming language in short paragraphs and not into a book is a good skill for anyone to learn. As the saying goes Keep it Simple!

Looking further a field though outside of STEM opportunities there is a gap of industry mentoring back into education to help bridge the gap between students taking courses and graduating, and joining the business world.

The key benefits of this would be:

• Personalised guidance and support
• Bridging the gap between theory and practice
• Building confidence and professional networks
• Encouraging lifelong learning
• Promoting diversity and inclusion

It would be good to see more of this type of mentoring going on to help fulfil the growing number of vacancies in the tech world and also encourage more students into the field of tech.