Support for Industry Placement Mentors
Welcome to the Support for Industry Placement Mentors microsite. It contains support and guidance for anyone who is interested in how to mentor students on a T-level industry placement.
Start your journey
1
Introduction to mentoring
2Who can be a mentor?
3What makes mentoring work well?
4Knowledge and behaviours
5Communication
6The experience of being mentored
7Preparing for placements
8Planning and running mentoring sessions
9Meeting individual needs
10Safety, health and wellbeing
11Supporting students’ learning
12Concluding and reflecting
This page contains information about:
What the microsite is for
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How it is organised
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What the 12 sections contain
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Action planning
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Mentoring in industry placements
WHAT THE MICROSITE IS FOR
As referenced in the DfE T Level Industry Placements Employer Guide, this site has been designed to help anyone interested in mentoring to learn about the principles and practice of effective mentoring in the context of industry placements.
It takes a practical approach which should:
Enable you to understand what mentoring is
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Help you understand how mentoring works in practice
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Equip you with the tools to carry out the mentoring role confidently and well
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Support you as you develop your mentoring skills
HOW IT IS ORGANISED
The site has 12 main sections, plus this page and a closing page. The titles of the 12 sections are shown in the grid at the top of this page. Click on a title to go the section.
Sections 1 to 6 provide an introduction to mentoring in principle and the concepts which will underpin your mentoring practice. Sections 7 to 12 contain more specific guidance on mentoring students who are on an industry placement as part of their T-level programme.
You can work through all 12 sections in order if you wish. Or you may prefer to select sections which are of most interest to you, depending on your existing knowledge and skills in mentoring.
WHAT THE 12 SECTIONS CONTAIN
Each section provides information about the topic. There’s a short summary paragraph at the top of the section followed by a few bullet points outlining which specific topics are covered.
There are regular opportunities for you to reflect on key questions about the topics. These questions are followed by ideas which you may have thought of yourself, or which give a different angle on the topic.
Most sections include real-life examples of mentoring in practice and comments by students, mentors and others involved in industry placements.
There are references to additional sources of information at the end of every section, with links to those available online. They often include links to specific tools in the Department for Education’s T-level employer support package.
ACTION PLANNING
You may want to review your mentoring skills and set yourself a few follow-up actions. The action planning tool on this site will give you some prompts to think about as you go through the materials which you can download and take away, or refer back to online at any time.
Once you've finished your journey through the materials you'll have a full action plan to support you in your mentoring relationships.
MENTORING IN INDUSTRY PLACEMENTS
Industry placements are high quality, structured experiences of real work.
They give students a chance to:
Learn new skills and use them at work
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Make a genuine contribution to the organisation they are doing the placement in
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Gain practical experience of what they're learning on their course
The student’s learning and the contribution they can make are enhanced where the student is supported by a mentor.