Preparing for the Future: A Generation of Mentees

Luke Skywalker knew how to be a good mentee and as a result, the whole universe was at his fingertips…..

In the second of our series on preparing young people for a rapidly changing world, entrepreneur Tom Hadfield highlights the importance of mentoring.

Tom argues that “the art of how to ask for advice from mentors, how to distil the key lessons and how to apply them to our own lives is one of the best kept secrets in education”.

This is a refreshingly novel idea. Effective mentoring benefits all parties involved. For the mentor, it provides a personal development opportunity. For young people, it encourages them to seek advice and guidance, and, as Richard Reeves argues in last week’s essay, to continually question. A successful mentoring relationship can provide young people with some of the skills likely to be needed to succeed in the future workplace, such as confidence, enquiry skills, reflection and flexibility.

Is the current education system the right environment for successful mentoring relationships to develop? Much support is given to training the mentor. But how do we support young people to ask the right questions in a environment which focuses on knowing the right answers? As always, I am keen to hear your views.

Comments

[david simoes-brown]

Interesting point about young people being equipped to ask the right questions of Mentors. This is a life skill which will get them far if applied to business and employment interactions. Trouble is, it's not a natural skill in many. Perhaps the mentor's first act should be to teach this. And given the numbers involved, it might be easier to communicate to fewer mentors compared to crowds of children?

[Roland Harwood]

Mentoring and education tend to imply a one way flow of information but I was struck by how much I learned from my mentee when I did some formal mentoring a few years ago. I think these days it's referred to as reverse mentoring but essentially it means 'find yourself a younger mentor'. Regarding how to support young people to ask the right questions, I'd say there is no substitute for experience, so set up opportunities for people to try it...