Re-envisioning career mentoring with penultimate year students

Philippa Fairfax, employability adviser at Sheffield Hallam University, demonstrates the benefits of ringfencing a mentoring programme for penultimate year students…  

The benefits of university mentoring programmes are widely understood: the opportunity to pair up students with industry professionals (who may or may not be from an occupational area related to their area of study) provides invaluable experience and insight and Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) has been successfully running our programme for over a decade now.   

This year the Career Mentoring Team took the decision to ringfence our programme for L5 (penultimate year) students. Primarily, we wanted to see if this would impact on the number of students achieving a sandwich placement year opportunity, especially in some of those hard-to-reach occupational areas such as media and the creative industries. What followed was a programme completed by 96 L5 students, which revealed a far wider range of benefits than that envisaged at the start. This article aims to outline four of these through the lens of our mentees.  

1. Mentoring to develop career ideas from an 'undecided' perspective 

An L5 Criminology student joined the programme with few career ideas and unsure about whether the law sector was even for them. Paired with a highly experienced mentor and HR professional, they were introduced to a range of experts from across the HR world, developed confidence and networking skills and at the end of the programme secured a law placement in India for the summer. They reflected: 'My mentor's knowledge has provided me with the opportunity to see my career in various different lights.' 

2. Mentoring to overcome barriers 

An L5 Animation student with multiple support needs, including severe dyslexia, was mentored by an independent animator and illustrator and ultimately nominated their mentor for our Inspirational award. 'I really appreciated my mentor's encouragement of my artistic endeavours and aspirations for ambitious cartoons,' they said. The student developed the confidence to attend an animation conference in spring 2024 and successfully secured a sandwich placement year role.  

3. Building social capital in hard-to-reach occupations 

A high number of L5 Law students applied to our mentoring programme. Knowing that law sandwich placements are limited we were concerned that there be enough benefit to our L5s through participation in this programme. One mentor, a recent graduate herself, provided inspirational support to three students over the year, offering networking opportunities and application advice. It also led to paid summer internships within an established law practice. One student commented, 'It has been very refreshing to meet someone that is in the position you see yourself and want to be in, in the near future and I plan to keep in touch with my mentor throughout my final year at university.' 

4. Adding value to support students to secure highly competitive sandwich placements 

As we had originally hoped at the outset, our mentees did have some success at securing sandwich placement opportunities. An L5 Sports Journalism student paired with a mentor at the Football Association benefitted from a wide range of opportunities that ultimately put the student in a strong position to secure a placement with Express and Star Newspaper group. 'Through my mentor I got lots of work experience and articles for my portfolio which has obviously been good for my career progression,' they said. 

Reflection and summary 

By programme-end, five mentees had secured sandwich placements, 12 obtained internships, three secured work experience, and five individuals found paid work in a related area. However, it was clear from our evaluation that the mentees saw a myriad of benefits far beyond securing an opportunity. One mentee sums this up: 'My mentor offered unwavering support, invaluable guidance, and had a transformative impact on my personal and professional growth.' 

By offering mentoring input in Level 5 rather than in final year, students can further expand their networks while at university, develop self-awareness and confidence, reflect on potential new career directions and build the social capital to secure new experiences. In this way they can look forward to starting their final year of study with a clearer plan of action for achieving their goals.  

Thanks to the other members of the SHU Career Mentoring team Lennie Young, Rachel Gradwell, Bianca Roberts for their input.  

Notes 

Sheffield Hallam Career Mentoring Programme SHU Careers website  

Written by

Philippa Fairfax

Employability adviser

Sheffield Hallam University