The hunt is on for mentors from the business world who can help the island’s ’Career Ready’ programme.

Professionals are being sought from any industry in the island to offer their support and help students develop their employability skills during the programme.

That’s the mesage from Lorna Trevethan, general manager of employed.im which has been announced as new co-ordinators of Career Ready Isle of Man.

The scheme is a year-long programme which involves monthly one-to-one meetings between students and their matched mentors,some employability master classes and a four to six-week paid internship.

All of these factors are aimed at equipping students with the experience and skills they will need to enter employment.

Lorna said: ’We’ve developed strong relationships with both local employers and schools over the past three years.

’Taking Career Ready under our wing is a natural step for us and it fits in perfectly with the work that we are already undertaking locally which includes co-ordinating the Awareness of Careers in Engineering (ACE) Programme, Manx ICT Association, and its apprenticeship programme.

’We’re passionate about helping students enter the world of work with the right skills that employers are looking for.’

The current focus for Career Ready IOM is ’information Technology’, supporting students on developing career readiness in the IT and STEM sector. [science, technology, engineering and manufacturing]. After recruiting 15 students to the programme, Lorna accompanied them on their first Career Ready event, the Capital Experience in London. The event started with a masterclass and motivational talk with Action Jackson at the Dominion Theatre, followed by a further masterclass at Moody’s in Canary Wharf.

Lorna said now that the students are on board, the programme really needs more mentors and internship companies to join.

She said mentor support and the provision of internship placements are imperative to the success of the programme, and ensuring that students are offered a variety of placements to suit their skill-sets.

What being a mentor

involves

lOne hour per month mentoring sessions at your place of work

lA couple of networking events each year

lOn-going support through their placement (whether or not it is based in your business)

l Checks will be carried out on volunteers before assigning a mentee.

lIf your organisation is able to offer a four-week internship in the ICT field, whether you are a software/tech company or have a strong IT or infrastructure department, employed.im want to hear from you. To register interest, contact Lorna Trevethan, email [email protected] or on 664000.

The new cohort of youngsters fromthe island, aged between 16 and 18, who will be working with the help of mentors as part of ’Career Ready’