Dear Colleagues,
I was wondering if you could help me. I'm based at the Staffordshire University Careers Service, and we run a mentoring scheme to match our students with professionals working in their chosen career sector, called "MentorVista". We currently have a number of students on both our BSc and MSc awards in Forensic Computing for whom we're struggling to find suitable mentors. I wondered if you or any of your colleagues might be able to help, either by mentoring a student yourself, or by suggesting other avenues for finding someone suitable? The time commitment is fairly small, you can support students by e-mail if this is most convenient, and we don't require any prior experience of mentoring, as we are more interested in our mentors' experience in their field.
A bit more about the MentorVista scheme The kind of support our mentors tend to offer depends on skills, experience and availability, as well as the needs of the student, but you might, for example, offer feedback on CVs, advice on how to make contacts, as well as general support and encouragement. As I mentioned, you can provide support either by e-mail, telephone or face-to-face meetings (or a combination of all three). Some mentors are even able to offer work experience or shadowing opportunities, though you don't have to be able to do this.
I have attached an "FAQ of mentoring" which gives more information about the role of mentor, as well as the time commitment and how the scheme works. The MentorVista web site is at
I hope you can help us and I look forward to hearing from you!
Best wishes,
Helen Pownall
Project Manager
Careers & Employability Service
Staffordshire University
Cadman Building
College Road
Stoke-on-Trent
ST4 2DE
Tel 01782 294 926
Mobile 0781 494 6373
E-mail h.c.pownall@staffs.ac.uk