Ireland’s World Cup Cricket Star Honours Students and their Corporate Mentors at Unique NDP-Funded Student Mentoring Programme Celebration

Kevin O’Brien, star of the Irish World Cup cricket team, officially honoured the 228 students and business volunteers who were involved in the Student Mentoring Programme, by awarding certificates to participants at a special reception held at The Department of Education and Science offices, Marlborough Street, Dublin on Thursday 3 May 2007. The presentation was to honour and recognise the students’ and volunteers’ two year participation in this unique mentoring programme.

Funded under the National Development Plan, the Student Mentoring Programme is an initiative from the Schools’ Business Partnership (SBP) established in 2001, and managed by Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI).  

Over the past two years, employees from KPMG, Anglo Irish Bank, Cadbury, Marks & Spencer, Cisco Systems, Bank of Ireland, Microsoft, O2, INVESCO, DMG Services and Capmark linked up with senior cycle students in a number of schools throughout the country. The mentors and students discuss career options, do work shadowing, learn computer skills and get assistance with CV preparation and interview skills.  Regular one-on-one meetings and social events help to build the relationship with the mentors, who provide an invaluable source of guidance and advice on careers and education to their matched student. The Student Mentoring Programme began in 2001 and this is the 6^th group of mentors and students to be awarded their certificates. To date, almost 1,000 students around the country have benefited from this innovative programme.

At the event, participating students described how being mentored helped their self esteem and many recounted how their mentor helped them research different career choices and supported them during the final challenging years of the Leaving Certificate Cycle.

“It was great to meet people who were really able to help me.  I thought it might have been just me sitting in an office with my mentor and talking about what I want to do as a career but my mentor actually brought me into her place of work so I could experience first hand what she did which I found really interesting and enjoyable”, said Mary Doyle, Leaving Cert student, St. Thomas’ CC, Bray.

Duncan McKenzie, Supply Planner – Logistics, Cadbury Ireland Ltd recounted his experience of being a mentor, “The mentoring programme has given me a fantastic opportunity to meet interesting young people and benefit from their differing perspectives of life in today's Ireland. The frank exchange of opinions on any number of topics was a breath of fresh air and I think both myself and the student I was matched up with ended up a lot wiser for the experience.”

Germaine Noonan, Schools Business Partnership Programme Manager, congratulated this year’s recipients commenting, “This fantastic programme has resulted in a number of students continuing on to third level when previously, sitting their Leaving Certificate had not seemed realistic.   However, the benefits are not all one sided.  The mentors have benefited in their own personal development and skills enhancement.  This programme is an excellent example of active citizenship at its best.”

ENDS

Editor’s Notes

• Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI), founded in 2000, is a unique movement of companies committed to Corporate Responsibility practices. Their purpose is to inspire, challenge and support business in continually improving its positive impact on society in the community, environment, marketplace and workplace.  
• The Schools’ Business Partnership (SBP) is a flagship programme managed by Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI). It is conducted in association with Marks & Spencer and supported by Cadburys.  
• Some of the participating schools this year were Larkin College, CBS Westland Row, Technical Institute Ringsend, Presentation Warrenmount, St. Thomas’ Bray, Greendale CS, Mullingar CC, Caritas College, St. Mary’s Secondary School Haddington Road.  
• SBP Programmes offered include:

 (a) The Student Mentoring Programme encourages students who are at risk of leaving school early to continue with their studies with the advice of a mentor at a local business. Almost 1000 mentors and students have participated to date.  

 (b) The Skills@Work programme invites employees from local businesses to talk to students about real-life skills required in the workforce, such as interview preparation and CV writing. The main programme sponsor is Cadbury Ireland. In the current academic year, 2454 students are benefiting from this programme.  

 (c) The Summer Work Placement Programme, offered in cooperation with the Irish Funds Industry Association, organises short-term job opportunities for students in leading financial services organisations that include PWC, Ernst &Young, Bank of Bermuda and Dexia Bank. 146 students have been placed since 2001.  

 (d) The Management Excellence for Principals programme facilitates skills sharing between business and school leaders.  Since the programme’s inception 3 years ago, one third of Irish Principals have participated.  

·        Some €25.8 billion will be invested in the key areas of training and education through the National Development Plan 2007-2013.