Mentoring Offers Promise in Classrooms
Resource type: Grantee Story
The educational system in Northern Ireland is not meeting the needs of individuals or society. 21% leave school without achieving the minimum standards for success; many leave with no qualifications at all. 23% of adults have no qualifications, and 28% are economically inactive.
Three programmes – Time to Read, Time to Count, and Time to Compute – build the skills of 8-to-11-year-olds. The Big Move helps 11- and 12-year-olds transfer to new schools. The Student Mentoring Programme encourages self-confidence in 15-to-16-year-olds. e-Pals, an internet mentoring programme, develops confidence and IT skills in 16- and 17-year-olds.
These programmes represent a promising but not yet proven model. With Atlantic support, Business in the Community is testing and refining the model to be sure that the programmes:
- Reach the students most in need of them
- Can expand to large portions of the educational system in Northern Ireland (and potentially in the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere in the European Union)
- Can be delivered consistently across schools
- Achieve the desired results of better educational skills, self-confidence, and personal and professional aspirations.