The University of Pretoria (UP) is accepting mentor applications for one more week until 10th May with the hopes of connecting said mentors in the workforce with final year students.

Over a period of six months between May and October mentors will help students get “an idea of the realities of the working environment”.

In a recap of the programme in the 2021 UP reported many successes for both mentors and their mentees together with how this had worked with the ongoing pandemic.

“Mentors include early-career as well as senior-career professionals, some of whom mentor more than one student, such as Architecture lecturer Akheel Naicker, who accommodated 11 Architecture students. Most mentors and students interact through Google Meet, where they discuss the career experiences, choices and goals of the mentors, how to apply for a job, and much more,” the university writes.

Those considering becoming a mentor will need to take note of the following requirements:

• “Three discussion sessions. The sessions can either be online- or face-to-face sessions;
• An invitation to the student to shadow the alumni for a day at work – if not possible, another online session or face-to-face session;
• A final feedback reflection report from the student and alumni; and
• A function to acknowledge all involved.”

Mentor applications can be found on Google Docs and requires some basic information from applicants.

As mentioned the pandemic is still playing a part in how education and work is conducted, so applicants can also choose how they’d like to participate between only online, only face-to-face or a hybrid approach.