Words by Tessa, a financial sector worker and volunteer business mentor now supporting a Broadway client to improve her work and learning skills
- The coaching and training of Broadway mentors is in depth and extensive
- Carefully matching by the Broadway team ensures mentors and mentees are able to work well together and open up about their own objectives for the programme
- Mentoring has been “something I will never forget”, says mentor
No amount of training can truly prepare you for the journey you will take as Broadway mentor. I remember sitting in my first training session and eagerly wanting to meet my mentee and get started. I was apprehensive, particularly after the safety training session, but excited and motivated.
The matching process took some time but was extremely worthwhile as I was matched with a brilliant candidate who was of a similar age.
Immediately this put us both at ease as we found some common ground discussing the latest fashion trends, which led to discovering her love of art and also the textile workshop that she regularly attended at the Broadway Centre, in west London. This proved to be a good foundation for our future discussions as it encouraged my usually shy mentee to open up and talk about her interests.
But the journey hasn’t always been smooth.
Communication and time-keeping are skills that still need a lot of work, but thankfully she has always shown up to our meetings, which I now see as a massive achievement in itself. Often our bi-weekly meetings cover the same ground and I struggle with my mentee’s lack of direction.
That is not to say that she has no interests, but in fact the opposite, she is interested in everything! We constantly swing between topics of art, her desire to work in social care, her interest in reflexology… the list is endless.
And it is this level of passion that I find so fulfilling. To see someone who is willing to turn their life around, so hopeful for the future, has been a real experience for me and something I will never forget.
Can you help a Broadway client make the next step in work and learning? Support them with anything from CV writing skills to setting up a new business. Read more here.
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