GMIT - Foróige’s Third Level Mentoring

What is Mentoring? Mentoring is a collaborative relationship between a member of staff from GMIT a nd a student for the purpose of the mentee’s growth, learning, and development. Mentors often act as role models and sounding boards for their mentee and provide guidance to help them reach their goals and make the transition to higher education as smooth as possible. Mentors report many benefits as well, including satisfaction from seeing others develop; expanded generational and cultural perspectives; strengthening of technical, leadership, and interpersonal skills; and continuing to experience new ideas and insights. Foróige is a leading national youth organisation with over 50 years’ experience in working with young people in Ireland. Foróige identified a need for a model of one-to-one work with young people who would benefit from additional support. The internationally recognised Big Brother Big Sister (BBBS) programme was chosen to meet the identified need due to its procedures for recruitment of participants, supervision of matches and proven outcomes for mentees. The BBBS Programme was the basis of the Mentoring Programme which was developed by Foróige in conjunction with GMIT. The Programme for Access to Higher Educatio n (PATH) is a dedicated fund, broken into three strands, committed to increasing participation by under-represented groups in higher education. PATH III has helped facilitate the development of mentoring within GMIT by supporting the GMIT Connect office which offers mentoring services to our students to ensure they get the most out of their time with GMIT.