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Nottingham University Business School Buddy Scheme- Mentoring Handbook 2014/15

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!Mentoring: A Constructed Relationship that is sought by both the mentee and mentor, who acts as an ‘experienced friend’. It is based on mutual respect and both parties have an active role within it.

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!Module Convener: Jackie Andrews

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!!!Table of Contents

Table of Contents

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!Introduction to the NUBS Buddy Scheme The Nubs Buddy Scheme was established in 2014 in order to provide incoming first- year students into University with peer support from experienced, senior students within their own department. The idea for the mentoring scheme came from discussions within the NUBS Learning Community Forum.

The philosophy behind the scheme is simple: experienced students help new students with getting familiar with structures and tasks, which then allows the new students to spend more time on their studies. The mentors provide guidance and support, and by doing this, often find that having to rationalize and explain to somebody else how something work, it

Introduction to the NUBS Buddy Scheme 3 .............................................................

Timetable 4 .................................................................................................

How to set boundaries with your Mentee: 8 ...........................................................

Points to consider: 8 ......................................................................................

How mentees can contact you? 8 ........................................................................

How much of your time you can offer? 8 ...............................................................

What we expect of you as Mentors: 8 ...................................................................

Schedule of tasks to count towards the Advantage Award 9 ........................................

Issues covered in the training sessions include: 9 ....................................................

Mentoring Activity: 10 .....................................................................................

Recommended types of meetings to have with mentees: 11 .......................................

How to handle a crisis and when to refer to tutor 13 ................................................

Support for Mentors: 13 ...................................................................................

More detail on week one and first year’s deadlines: 13 .............................................

How mentoring helps you- CV skills 14 .................................................................

By the end of this module, students will be able to: 14.............................................

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has a reverse effect on their own studies, and helps, in turn, to make them better students and more engaged with their own department.

Mentors provide support that is restricted to routine Business School life and basic academic tasks; this scheme is not an alternative to pastoral and academic support provided by the department but is aimed at occupying a grey area in between; one of the participants of the scheme in a fellow school in 2012/13 explained the buddy scheme as follows:

! ‘There are some issues that fall in between what your friends can help you with and what you want to ask a lecturer you have never met before, and the Buddy Scheme fills those gaps wonderfully. Thanks to my mentor, on my third day at Nottingham, I already knew everything there was to know about the library, the online portal and how to make the most of my seminars. My mentor is a wonderful person who is incredibly helpful; she has made the difference between my first weeks at Nottingham being unproductive and achieving a good balance of social and academic life’.

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!!Timetable !Mentors for the scheme have the option to get accreditation for their activities through the Nottingham Advantage Award. In order to gain 10 credits, mentors need to fulfil all the assessment requirements and attend the compulsory training sessions. It is also possible to just act as a mentor, minus the accreditation. You will still be required to attend the training sessions, but you do not need to do the assessments. As you can see from the timetable below, mentoring will take up approximately 10-15 hours of your time; the

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assessments are not that arduous, so I would suggest you get the credit for your activities and complete the assignments. If in doubt, please make an appointment to see me and I can advise you in person and discuss your specific circumstances.

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Friday 26September

Introductory training Information and Boundaries

A34 Business School North 1.30 -3.30

Monday 29September

Meeting Mentees and welcome event

B52 Business School South 6-7.30

Wednesday 8October

Communication and problem solving

A34 Business School North 4.30 – 6.30

Wednesday 19November

Leadership skills and Careers

Central Services session on University Park

Wednesday 4February

Peer review and evaluation session

A34 Business School North 4.30-6.30

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Introduction to the NAA Module:

!Total Advantage Award Credits: 10

Level 1

Taught Semesters and Assessment Period: Autumn and Spring - Assessed by end of Spring Semester.

Session Availability: Taught every year

Pre-requisite(s): N/A

Co-requisite(s): N/A

Expected Number of Students Taking Module: 30

Target Students: This module is available to registered University of Nottingham students only as part of the Nottingham Advantage Award scheme. The module cannot contribute to an academic award programme.

!Summary of Content:

This module will provide ‘senior’ Business School students (that is students in years 2, 3 and 4) with an opportunity to become peer mentors to incoming first-year Single and Joint Honours Business School students. Students will develop an understanding of the role of a mentor and practice the key skills needed to be effective in this role. This module will particularly focus upon a wide range of communication skills in order to better equip them in their role. The benefits for the mentors are in developing important transferable skills; in particular, they will be given an opportunity to play a new part in the life and community of the Business School by passing THEIR skills to a new cohort of students. It is vital that students in their first year are encouraged by their peers/mentors to appreciate the opportunities open to them throughout their time at university to develop intellectually and socially as well as in terms of future employability. The whole aim is to help first year students make the most of the opportunity they have been given in coming to university. Mentors must be approachable and friendly, encouraging students to ask questions and seek help. Mentors will provide assistance with academic queries but are not a replacement for the already standing tutor system.

Aims:

• Provide specific training to students that will help to equip them with the skills and knowledge to carry out the role of mentor effectively.

• To enable student mentors to develop and practice the key skills needed to be an effective mentor such as:

- Goal Setting

- Action planning

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- Questioning skills

- Verbal and non-verbal communication skills

- Active listening

- Dealing with difficult situations

- Personal reflection techniques

• To assist mentors and mentees to feel a greater sense of belonging to the University and their department in particular, as well as enhancing their general sense of well-being and social context. The scheme aims at developing important transferable skills related to study skills.

• To create a peer support framework where experience and knowledge is shared across a range of contexts.

• To help students understand how the skills and attributes developed and acquired will contribute towards employability and effective preparation for the workplace – in particular the transition process into work and continuous personal and professional development.

• To enable students to develop experience at ‘leadership’.

We perceive of peer mentoring as a key initiative in enhancing and enriching the Nottingham student experience. By focussing on a key moment of transition (the transition from school to University), mentors are asked to support peers with a process they themselves have already undergone; this invites a reflexive approach.

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!How to set boundaries with your Mentee: !Before you meet your mentee you might want to think about the boundaries you want to set with them. Obviously as senior students, you have a lot on your plate with your own academic work. Therefore it is important to let your mentors know that you are not their 24/7 helpline.

Points to consider:

How mentees can contact you? Emails- allow you to distance yourself, as it is not a way of instantly contacting.

Social Media (Facebook and Twitter)- do you want your mentees to be able to see what you get up to? It might be worth thinking about the privacy issues with social media, however because everyone is so familiar with it, it can be a good tool to get in contact with your mentees.

How much of your time you can offer? It is up to you how much of your time you can offer to your mentees, obviously you need to be focussing on your own work more. Most of the time spent with mentees will be in the first term and gradually they should drift away, feeling confident to continue without your help.

We have suggested a few meetings you might like to have with your mentors in the beginning. Obviously it completely depends on how many you want to have and how many the mentees want to have- you might find that one wants to have lots of meetings and that another might just want to converse via email. This scheme is designed to be completely flexible to the needs of yourselves and the mentees.

What we expect of you as Mentors: As mentors we are not expecting you to act as tutors to the first years, we are not encouraging you to read and proof their work for them. You are not providing that sort of academic support.

We ask that you advise mentees on simple things such as: how to use the library, how best to take notes in lectures, how to choose subsidiary modules, who to contact about admin issues etc.

You are there to assist, not to do the work for them! Also you are not there to become “drinking buddies” with your mentees. If you chose to socialise with them once the scheme is over that is completely up to you, but for the time being aim to keep the relationship strictly professional.

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!Schedule of tasks to count towards the Advantage Award Contact = 20 hours

Introductory workshop training – 2 hour introductory session followed by two further training sessions of 2 hours each, and a final peer review evaluation session designed to help mentors undertake a final evaluation of their experience, by delivering a short presentation summarising the experience and receiving feedback from peer mentors. Students will also undertake activities that help them to reflect on the overall experiences, notably through contributions to the module’s blog.

Issues covered in the training sessions include: • Boundaries of a mentoring relationship

• Roles/relationships between mentor/mentee

• Goal setting

• Problem solving methods

• Questioning techniques

• Basics of verbal and non verbal communication

• Active listening

• Models for resolving conflict and difficulties

• Personal reflection techniques

Tracking progress: Mentors are required to report to the mentoring team, Jackie Andrews, Mayur Gupta and Ann Lavin every fortnight throughout the semester to update on progress with their mentee. This can be conducted through e-tutorials, the designated moodle site for the module or face to face if needed. This is designed to encourage mentors to reflect on and track their progress at regular intervals and work with the tutor to address issues and challenging situations.

You will also need to keep a log of your mentoring sessions and any contact you have with your mentees as part of the award asessement.

!Independent Study=40 hours

Students are expected to engage in independent study in support of this module. E-learning activities provide a series of references that will enable students to source further reading materials.

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Mentoring Activity: The first session is a group session, facilitated by the module leader and senior mentors where mentors and mentees will be introduced to each other. There will be a discussion of issues which may include setting boundaries, establishing the purpose of the mentoring and practical arrangements of the sessions. What each mentee aims to get out of the program and if they have any initial questions. The following sessions will be arranged by mentors with their mentees for approximately 1 hour fortnightly throughout the Autumn Semester, with a couple of group activities to support this.

!Assessment Details:

Assessment = 40 hours

Reflective portfolio and a final review session with a peer group presentation

Coursework 1 50% Maintaining a log of mentoring sessions held Further personal reflection notes will highlight the participants awareness of their development as mentors and their achievement of the learning outcomes. Deadline: 12th December 2014.

Coursework 2 50% Active participation and engagement with all timetabled sessions and e-learning activities. Attendance at final evaluation session and group presentation on 4th February 2015.

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!Recommended types of meetings to have with mentees: !Meeting 1: Introductory session facilitated by Jackie Andrews and Mayur Gupta in this session you will be introduced to your assigned mentees. (26th September)

Other meetings:

Getting to the lecture on time- look at all the rooms you will need to get to and how longt does it take, what is the frequency of the buses. Perhaps pick a room and time and see how long it takes them to get there.

Library session- it might be prudent to introduce your mentees to the library, as it can seem a bit daunting at first. Show them how the library catalogue works, the different sections of the library (short loan, high use, oversized, periodicals etc.), how to use the printers, how to search for an article, how to check a book out and return one.

Form filling- how to fill out a cover sheet correctly, how to sign up for modules, how to sign up for seminars, extenuating circumstances etc.

Note taking- it might be a good idea to go through how best to take notes for essays and lectures, to help your mentees avoid accidentally plagiarising! Show them some examples of your own notes to help them!

Moodle - if they have not already figured this out it might be worth showing them how moodle works and how to log into the portal and their university emails.

Introduction to the Department’s Social Media- encourage your mentees to join the Facebook page and encourage them to join Twitter (with a view of us being able to use Twitter for Careers activities later). Set up a linkedin page. Encourage them to follow the departmental accounts.

Revision meeting- a brief session to share some revision tips with your mentees before they go away for Christmas. This will also give them an opportunity to talk about how they are feeling about the impending exams and also to discuss any essay feedback they might have had.

Essay/ Exam feedback- an opportunity for you to discuss the feedback your mentees have received.

NB. the number of meetings and types of sessions will vary depending on the needs of your mentees. It might also be good to have a few sessions as just a catch up (15mins) to check in on your mentee. (Not all of these have to be face to face meetings, for example, you could run the revision and essay/exam feedbacks via email)

As in previous years we are running the essay competition for first years and it would be good to encourage them to participate. This can also be used as a vehicle for some of the other questions such as essay writing, form filling handing in essays etc.

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!How to handle a crisis and when to refer to tutor If you feel uncomfortable at any point with an issue raised by your mentee- or you are concerned at all with your mentees behaviour etc. It might be necessary to talk to your mentee’s tutor, Jackie, Mayur or Ann

Referring an issue or question you are not sure about is essential as it takes the pressure off you. Remember you aren’t a teacher!

Support for Mentors: Support for you, as Mentors, will be offered in a multitude of ways.

If you are having trouble with anything, be it a rude mentee or are struggling to connect and contact your mentees, please report this to Mayur Gupta or Ann Lavin. Absences/ disengagement from their studies amongst first years in particular often indicate an academic issue, and it is important that this gets referred to the School to deal with.

Jackie Andrews is the module convener, while Mayur Gupta acts as Senior Mentor, and Ann Lavin as administrator. Please contact any of us urgently if you have not established meaningful contact with your mentee at the end of 3 weeks.

Jackie Andrews (Module Convenor) jacquelione.andrews@nottingham.ac.uk

Maur Gupta (Senior Mentor): liymg14@exmail.nottingham.ac.uk

Ann Lavin (Module Administrator)ann.lavin@nottingham.ac.uk

More detail on week one and first year’s deadlines: We will provide you with details of the first years schedules and deadline dates and any other information that will help you with your mentoring

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!How mentoring helps you- CV skills

By the end of this module, students will be able to: A. Knowledge and Understanding

• A1 Define the role of a mentor

• A2 Recognise the principles of effective verbal and non-verbal communication

• A3 Demonstrate an awareness of the key skills required of an effective mentor

• A4 Demonstrate an awareness of goal setting methods and how to create agreed records of discussions

!B. Intellectual Skills

• B1 Establish relationships with those being mentored within set boundaries

• B2 Recognise conflict or difficult situations and adopt models for resolving or minimising conflict or difficult situations

• B3 Select and adopt appropriate communication and questioning skills

C. Professional Practical Skills

N/A

D. Transferable (Key) Skills

• D1 Select and use appropriate written, verbal and non-verbal communication skills

• D2 Develop leadership and influencing skills

• D3 Understand individual style and respond accordingly

• D4 Recognise, analyse and respond to non-verbal communication from others

!Resources:

!On Moodle your module is _NUBS Buddy Scheme NOMOD4 (UK) (14-15)

http://moodle.nottingham.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=29693

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