We’re delighted to open up 2025’s Buddy Scheme to a new round of recruitment for mentors and mentees! Sign up here.
Applications to the scheme end 5 September.
The Buddy Scheme can be beneficial for both mentors and mentees.
Mentoring is a supportive relationship where one person shares their knowledge and experience with another to support their learning, development, and career growth. It involves the mentor listening to the mentee’s perspective, asking probing questions, and then reflecting insights back to encourage the mentee to problem-solve. A great mentor will act as a cheerleader, encouraging the mentee to strive for more and see the best in themselves.
Some of the advantages of mentoring…
For mentees:
- Guidance and Support: Mentors can offer advice based on experience, helping mentees navigate challenges and make informed decisions.
- Skill Development: Mentees can learn new skills, improve existing ones, and gain insights into how things are done in different organisations.
- Confidence Building: Encouragement and constructive feedback from a mentor can boost a mentee’s self-esteem and motivation.
- Networking Opportunities: Mentors can be a way to widen your network and meet people you wouldn’t otherwise.
- Career Advancement: Mentors support mentees to set goals, stay accountable, and progress more quickly.
For mentors:
- Personal Fulfillment: Helping someone grow and succeed can be deeply rewarding.
- Leadership Development: Mentoring can help you hone your communication, empathy, and coaching skills.
- Fresh Perspectives: Mentees often bring new ideas and energy, which can inspire and challenge mentors.
- Impact: Mentors can make a meaningful impact on the careers of their mentees.
- Networking Opportunities: Mentees can be a way to widen your network and meet people you wouldn’t otherwise.
“Definitely give it a go, you won’t regret it! If, like me, you’re unsure if you have enough experience, I’d say try and think back to yourself at the start of your first sci comms job, and think about how much knowledge you’ve gained since then… it’s just lovely knowing that you have played a small part in helping somebody else to succeed.”
Molly Andrews, Senior Communications and Media Officer, UK Dementia Research Institute
Remember that anything shared during your mentoring meetings should be kept private between mentor and mentee. You can find further guidance on the Buddy Scheme here.
Buddy scheme matching happens once a year, usually over the summer. An e-mail announcing the opening of the scheme will be sent out through the Stempra mailing list. We will ask you to complete a form asking questions about you and why you would like to join the scheme – the more honest and focused you can be when you answer these questions the easier it will be to find you the best match possible. The forms will be open for a month and once we have collected all of the forms we will do our best to match up mentors and mentees within a couple of weeks.
Once you have been matched with your mentor, you should send them an introductory e-mail and try to organise a first meeting within a few weeks of matching. Sometimes, things don’t feel right after the first meeting – maybe you have misaligned aims, or sometimes the chemistry just isn’t there! This is normal and no reflection on either of you. Please be honest and let us know if you feel this way, no one wants to be ghosted and it’s far better to be upfront about things! Get in touch with the scheme administrator so we can discuss other options with you.
We have a FAQ section below to answer regularly asked questions. If you have any further questions about the scheme, don’t hesitate to get in touch at caitlin.higgott@rfi.ac.uk.
Sounds interesting? Sign up to join the 2025’s Buddy Scheme here.
Applications to the scheme end 5 September.
FAQ
What is mentoring?
- Mentoring is a supportive relationship where one person shares knowledge and experience with another to support their learning, development, and career growth. It involves the mentor listening to the mentee’s perspective, asking probing questions, and then reflecting insights back to encourage the mentee to problem-solve. A great mentor will act as a cheerleader, encouraging the mentee to strive for more and see the best in themselves.
What does a mentoring partnership not cover?
- It’s not therapy – mentoring discussions should look to the positive and not dwell on what cannot be improved or mistakes of the past.
- It’s not training – the mentor’s role isn’t to train you on particular aspects of your job.
- It’s not a complete fix – the mentor isn’t there to solve all issues in the mentee’s life, more to guide them through problems or issues in their career to empower them to have confidence in finding their own solutions.
What experience do I need to be a mentor?
- Anyone who is a good listener, keen to support others to grow and be the best version of themselves and already has experience in owning their own personal development can be a mentor. As a guide, we would suggest you have a minimum of one year under your belt working in a STEM communications role. You don’t need to have line management experience, just a keenness to pass on your own unique experience and insights to others.
Can I sign up to be a mentor and a mentee at the same time?
- Yes, we welcome sign-ups without restriction, we would just recommend that you carefully think about the amount of time you realistically have to offer.
- We also recognise that people may find themselves wanting to both share insights and learn from others as they progress in their careers.
When requesting to join the scheme as a mentee
- Try to be as clear as possible about what you’d like to get out of the scheme – with yourself as well as with the scheme administrator. The clearer your aims, the better the chance that you’ll be able to achieve them!
- Please tell us if you have any accessibility needs on the form.
- Anything you share with us will remain confidential, and will only be shared with who you are paired up with.
- For example;
- Would you like tips on people management?
- A one-off session to plan for a career move?
- Guidance with tackling a tricky situation at work?
- Is there a particular role or sector you would like to learn more about?
Getting started
- Once you are assigned a mentor, reach out to them to introduce yourself, explaining a little about your background and experience, why you joined the mentoring scheme, and what you’re hoping to get out of it.
- Set up an initial meeting, virtual or face-to-face, to get to know each other and check if you both feel the partnership is going to work for both of you.
Your first meeting
- As a mentee, clearly communicate your goals for the mentoring relationship. Be clear in what you’re hoping to achieve, whether that’s a specific goal such as a promotion in your organisation, or a particular area you would like to gain more knowledge or confidence in. Your development and career journey is owned by you – you should set the goals and draw on your mentor’s insights to help you find the path towards achieving them.
- As a mentor, openly communicate your experience and what you can offer.
- Be clear in agreeing how often you will communicate, and what format this communication will take (Video calls? Emails? In-person meet-ups?). Be honest about how much time you can commit.
- Many mentors/mentees like to meet for an hour every 4-6 weeks, but you should find a regularity that you can definitely commit to. You may find it easiest to have a consistent day and time to meet.
- When discussing expectations, we’d strongly suggest putting some timescales in place to keep a check on progress and avoid the mentoring partnership drifting. You may wish to set a review date or a tentative end date – for example, you may feel that six months of meetings should be sufficient to address your aims. Alternatively, you may wish to initially meet three times and then check in on progress, deciding whether or not to continue.
- Agree to keep sensitive issues and information confidential – you should not discuss such topics outside of the mentoring relationship.
- Sometimes, things don’t feel right after the first meeting – maybe you have misaligned aims, or sometimes the chemistry just isn’t there! This is normal and no reflection on either of you. Please be honest and let us know if you feel this way, no one wants to be ghosted and it’s far better to be upfront about things! Get in touch with the scheme administrator so we can discuss other options with you.
When you conduct regular meetings
- Each meeting should contribute to helping the mentee make progress toward their goals. To make the meeting as productive as possible, we recommend the mentee suggest in advance what they’d like to discuss, to take notes during the meeting, noting any particular action points. These action points can then be reviewed at the next meeting and provide a useful structure to the conversation. You could use a method like SMART to set goals and provide structure.
- You may be a fan of structure and detail, or you might prefer open debate and discussion. As a mentee, follow what works best for you – you might find it useful to create a personal development plan for you and your mentor to work through, or you might just prefer to suggest a different topic each time you meet to debate and discuss. Choose what works best for you to achieve your goal.
- As a mentor, try to resist the temptation to jump in and solve problems for your mentee – listen and give them space to talk through their perspective, reflecting back what the mentee has said, and asking probing questions to help them find solutions themselves instead. Everyone has their own unique approach and your mentee may take a very different journey to you to get to their end goal. The role of the mentor is to help guide the mentee to achieve their goals by unlocking their own unique brilliance and individual approach
- If you are a mentor, bear in mind that your mentee may feel reluctant to ask you for meetings or informal check-ins – they may feel worried about “nagging” you. Try to be proactive in checking in with your mentee and organising meetings where helpful.
- If you are finding it difficult to keep up with the time commitment needed for the mentoring relationship please be honest and let the scheme administrator know. There’s nothing more disheartening than your mentor or mentee disappearing without a trace!
- Do keep in touch with the scheme administrator where helpful and let us know how things are going.
Ending the mentoring relationship
- It’s more helpful and satisfying to end a mentoring relationship formally rather than to have things “fizzle out”.
You may find after a few – or many – meetings that you have either achieved your initial aims, or that your situation has changed so that the mentoring relationship is no longer so relevant. When you are ready to end the mentoring relationship, it’s courteous to tell your mentor / mentee. - Spend some time in your final meeting reflecting with your mentor / mentee on the mentoring process. Do thank them for anything you’ve especially appreciated or learned during your contact. You may also discuss how you might tackle any outstanding aims or issues going forwards, outside of the mentoring relationship.
- Please inform the scheme administrator that your mentoring relationship has ended – and let them know whether you’d like a new mentor / mentee, or whether you’re ready to take a break from the scheme.
- Feedback on your experience is also most welcome, we are very keen to find what did and didn’t work for you and use it to improve the programme for others.
Sounds interesting? Sign up to join the 2025’s Buddy Scheme here.
Applications to the scheme end 5 September.