David Cameron Announces New £12 million National Mentoring Campaign
David Cameron has announced the introduction of a new national mentoring campaign, aimed at supporting teenagers who have become disengaged from learning in the period prior to taking their GCSEs. The government will provide £12 million over the course of this Partliament for a new investment fund managed by The Careers & Enterprise Company. This […]
- by Teachwire
David Cameron has announced the introduction of a new national mentoring campaign, aimed at supporting teenagers who have become disengaged from learning in the period prior to taking their GCSEs.
The government will provide £12 million over the course of this Partliament for a new investment fund managed by The Careers & Enterprise Company. This will be used to further develop group and individual mentoring programmes that have been successfully proven to combat demotivation and poor attainment among young people in the years before they take their GCSEs.
The government is especially keen to identify mentoring approaches that have shown good results among disadvantaged young people with good KS2 attainment that has subsequently tailed off. There will also be priority given to those programmes that can demonstrate sustainability in the long term.
The Careers & Enterprise Company will look to recruit business people and professionals as volunteer mentors, willing to provide guidance and support for young people to help them realise their full potential, with backing from a £2 million advertising campaign.
According to Mike Hughes, Executive Director of the youth charity TwentyTwenty, ‘For many disengaged young people, a volunteer mentor is the first and only beneficial adult role model they have consistent access to over a long period of time. As such, the mentoring relationship can be literally life-changing, empowering them to overcome many personal challenges and achieve positive goals against the greatest of odds.
‘At TwentyTwenty we’ve seen this happen hundreds of times over the years, so we wholeheartedly welcome the Prime Minister’s innovative and important campaign to give this vital opportunity to thousands more young people who desperately need it.’
Also welcoming the announcement was Harris Federation CEO Sir Dan Moynihan, who commented, ‘In schools like ours, where social mobility is everything, the encouragement and outside perspective of a good mentor can make a huge difference to a young person’s life. We have had hundreds of successful and inspirational adults volunteering to mentor our students and I welcome this scheme, which will open up mentoring to many more deserving young people.’
