E-mentoring Newsletter No 2

Welcome to our second E-mentoring newsletter created to give you the latest news on the project you are a part of. 

In this newsletter we give all our E-Mentees the chance to win a 2GB IPod Shuffle in an easy-to-enter competition.  Read on to find out more.

Our newsletters also give you all the chance to tell each other what you think of the project, what it has meant for you and to spread your word to everyone involved.

We will be sending you emails to tell you when there is a new e-newsletter.  In each email will be a weblink which will take you to your special on-line newsletter.  Just click it and it will take you straight to the newsletter page.

Enterprise and Skills Event

Lots of our E-Mentees attended our Enterprise and Skills event in June held in Houghton Sports Hall.

The day saw our E-Mentees working with business supporters to develop their team building and problem solving skills while having fun taking part in a range of activities.

All the activities gave them a chance to work together to tackle a number of  challenges given to them by our business supporters. 

Among the businesses who created the activities for the day were: Sunderland's ATC 111 Squadron, Beamish Museum, Connexions Direct, M and A Media Services, Mott Macdonald, New College Durham and Nexus.

We took photographs of all the pupils at work during the  day and some of them arte shown here.  Are you in our photographs?

Use our link to take a look at more of our photos of the event.

First Class Careers Events

In July we held two First Class Careers events which gave our E-Mentees the chance to gain an insight into a host of careers they could aim for once they've left school. 

Alongside a host of business supporters they got the chance to get a taste of a host of different jobs - all designed to give them an insight into various careers. 

The First Class Careers events were held in South Hylton Tansy Centre and Barbara Priestman School. Businesses who supported the events included Reynolds Outdoor Centre, Sunderland Volunteer Centre, Planning Aid, M and A Media Services and Sun FM.

Amongst the activities they enjoyed were:

• Designing a new town from scratch
• Creating a poster to encourage people to volunteer
• Editing music for broadcasting on radio
• Map interpretation
• Creating an animated film
• Handling complaints and dealing with customers

We took photographs of all the pupils at work during the  day and some of them are shown here. Are you in our photographs? Use our link to take a look at more of our photos of the event.

See you soon

As well as using the internet to talk to E-Mentors, our E-Mentees will be meeting up again soon to take part in other activities.  Make a note that our Creativity and Enterprise Day takes place in December 2009.   Mentors and Mentees might like to email each other about the kind of things you need to think about when planning the launch of a new product.

Our E-Mentees will be challenged to find out what it's like to run a real business, manage staff, buy resources, make a product, negotiate an order and sell goods at the right price to make a profit.  A fun, action packed day which will give all our E-Mentees the chance to become budding Richard Bransons!

Mentees - Win an IPOD Shuffle

To help E-Mentees get ready for their Creativity and Enterprise Day we're setting a challenge - and there's a prize for the best answer. We've got an 2GB IPOD Shuffle for the Mentee who wins. 

To take part you need to research Richard Branson (pictured right) - one of Britain's most successful business people.... and yes you can ask your Mentor to help (but they don't get the prize!).

Make a list of all the businesses he runs and then come up with an idea for his next business, explaining why you think he'd be interested in setting it up.

Send you list, idea for Richard Branson's next business and the reason for your suggestion to: sarah.butler@ebcltd.org.uk

Don't forget to put your name and school on the email to Sarah.

Closing date for entries is November 30 and the winner will receive his or her prize at the Creativity and Enterprise Event in December.

Helping Each Other

By now most of our E-Mentees and E-Mentors should know a little bit about each other. 

With pupils back at school after a summer break we're working with E-Mentees to gain one of two special qualifications which will recognise and reward their efforts.  E-Mentors can help their E-Mentees by supporting them in a number of ways including:

• Giving advice and help in creating a CV.
• Discussing their career choices and ambitions.
• Helping them to research where they might study their chosen course or subject area.
• Being a listening ear if the E-Mentees have a particular challenge with a subject they're studying at school.

Our project officer, Sarah Butler, is visiting the pupils at schools regularly to support them in their use of the software and to help the pupils gain the evidence for one of two qualifications.

We've designed a special qualification for all our E-Mentees under 14 years of age, thanks to EBC's status as an approved centre for the NCFE.  It is called Developing Employment Skills.

E-Mentees over 14 will be working towards a different qualification - Introduction to Using ICT Systems - thanks to EBC's links with the National Open College Network.

You can find out more about these qualifications - and the kind of work our E-Mentees are doing by clicking on our special E-Mentoring qualifications page.

Mentoring .... want to know more?

In our last E-Newsletter we told you what our E-Mentees thought an E-Mentor did. One of our E-Mentors has now sent us these useful weblinks you might like to use to guide you in your support for your E-Mentees.

Just click on the links below for interesting articles and research findings on E-mentoring visit:

http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=e+mentoring&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hs=M5u&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mentoring

E-mentoring - who is involved?

There are about 70 young people signed up to be Mentees in the project.  Each are being matched with an E-Mentor recruited from North East businesses, large and small.

These E-Mentees are now part of the very exclusive E-friends club and are matched with around 50 business E-Mentors after completing a simple form which gives a little more detail about themselves and what kind of help they might need.

EBC's pioneering E-Mentoring project is being funded through Sunderland's award-winning Digitial Challenge initiative.

The project is a mix of on-line mentoring, large scale events and e-newsletters.

We need your ideas

We'd like you to tell us what you think - just use the special e-mentoring web tool to keep us informed.  If you've got some useful websites you think would be helpful to others involved in the project - E-Mentors or E-Mentees - then let us know.

Happy reading.

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Main information page

Unit 22, North East BIC, Wearfield, Sunderland Enterprise Park (East), Sunderland, SR5 2TA, Tyne and Wear. Phone: (0191) 516 6411  Fax: (0191) 516 6412.
Email: info@ebcltd.org.uk  Alternative email: educationbusiness@hotmail.com