Mentorship Programme a win for DCU students
Tuesday 26 April 2005

This year 40 students successfully completed the Joint Mentorship Programme. DCU and JCI Fingal are grateful to all mentors who gave their time an expertise to the students over the last six months.

The official closing ceremony of the DCU and JCI Fingal (Junior Chamber International) Mentorship Programme took place on Thursday, 14th April. There was strong attendance at the ceremony from both mentees and mentors, which once again demonstrated the success of the Programme. Certificates were presented to the participants by James Corcoran, President of JCI Ireland and graduate of DCU.

The joint Mentorship Programme was set-up as a pilot programme in 2003 by the DCU Careers Service and JCI Fingal and it involved the mentoring of second year DCU students by local business people. Due to the success of the pilot programme, graduates from DCU have also become mentors.

The Mentorship Programme has enabled second year DCU students to gain valuable experience from graduates and local business people. Each mentor meets their allocated student six times over the course of the academic year at social, motivational, learning and job shadowing events.

"The Joint Mentorship Programme is especially beneficial because it provides students with the opportunity to directly access current work practices and receive targeted career advice from an experienced person in the field," said Stephen Desmond, mentor and graduate of Communication Studies 1987.

"Mentors, like myself, find the process particularly rewarding because it feels really great to be useful to current students. The camaraderie, career-focus and optimism of the Mentorship Programme is a sheer joy for all those involved from students, graduates, to members of JCI Fingal," he added.

By participating in the Mentorship Programme, students gain an understanding of various industry sectors, it helps build their self-confidence and improves their presentation skills. The Programme also gives mentors an opportunity to re-examine their own career paths, and meet and network with other mentors.

The Careers Service welcomes the opportunity to work closely with JCI Fingal and the Alumni Office in DCU to promote and develop career opportunities for students. The 2005/2006 programme is underway and the aim is to significantly increase the number of participants. Financial support for the programme was provided by the DCU Educational Trust.

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