STEM Mentoring

Years 10 & 11, to run 24th Jan - 4th March (6 weeks) - OPEN FOR REGISTRATION NOW

Young people should sign up here to access this great opportunity. Please use your school email address and the school phone number of 01425 625 400

For any further queries, please email students@stem.org.uk.

What is STEM?

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths

You've likely heard the term STEM, these four fields share an emphasis on innovation, problem-solving and critical thinking. 

Together they make up a popular and fast-growing industry.

Most STEM workers use computers and other technology in their day-to-day jobs. Many also use the scientific method to test hypotheses and theories. As society and technology advances, the need for professionals who understand how these technologies work and who can propose practical solutions continues to grow.

There are so many careers of the future that don't even exist yet!

A possible day in a life in 2030...

Janine, a freelance designer, just received a notification from her AI assistant that her elderly aunt is unwell. Janine accesses her aunt’s home robot, which is constantly monitoring her aunt’s vital signs. She sees that the algorithmic health system has already diagnosed the issue and has ordered her medicine. Janine also added some flowers to the delivery to cheer up her aunt. The whole package is delivered within the hour via a drone. Janine coordinated all of that while commuting in a driverless, shared ride service programmed to pick her up and go directly to her daughter’s school. Janine’s AI assistant monitors the data flowing from her daughter’s implantable health tracker. Janine concludes that her daughter’s blood sugar levels must have been low because as her car pulls up, a delivery drone is dropping off a healthy snack.

How does the mentoring work?

The Brightside system doesn’t work on 1:1 live sessions, i.e., The Ambassador and the student do not need to be online at the same time, it is more similar to emails or texts being sent back and forth between them but without them giving their email addresses/phone numbers to each other.

How long are the sessions, are they done after school e.g. from 4pm or over the holidays or during the normal school day? Are they one off sessions or over a few weeks?

The mentoring is not designed as individual sessions where the STEM Ambassador and student are online at the same time. It is a text-based messaging platform, and we encourage messages to be sent by either party at any time throughout the duration of the mentoring period. Mentees should aim to send a least one message a week to their mentor. 

The URL for mentees to use once they have created their account is https://stemambassadors.mentoring.org.uk/sign-in

How long is the mentoring for?

The mentoring period is for 6 weeks for years 10 and 11. At the end of this time the users accounts are archived.

What is the nature of the support and the conversation with the students?

The discussion can take any path the student chooses. We are encouraging the year 10 & 11s to discuss career insights e.g., Different types of STEM roles.

For the year 10 & year 11 project, the mentees will receive a mentoring guide with discussion ideas from Brightside. Brightside staff will also send weekly prompts to mentors and mentees, giving them key topics to address. Each week, mentoring pairs will discuss topics tailored to help young people develop the specific knowledge and skills they need for the sector. Mentors and mentees also get full access to Bright Knowledge, Brightside’s bank of online resources about education and careers

I’m a student. What would this involve for me? /What should students expect?

The online mentoring project gives you the opportunity to pick your own mentor to support you to make confident and informed decisions about your future! The mentoring is text-based, and you do not need to be online at the same time as your mentor, so messages can be sent at any time by you or your mentor on the free Brightside app or via the Brightside platform accessed via PC. Before starting you would have to watch a short training video about how to use the platform and what sorts of things you could discuss with your mentor. Next you choose your mentor out of a small selection as well as fill out a questionnaire before and after the mentoring. It is recommended that you send at least one message a week to your mentor and respond to their messages within 3 days if you can. You can explore any subjects you want with your mentor, but the guidance Brightside will give you to support your conversations will be around exploring STEM careers and possible future pathways. You will be sent ideas for what to talk about by Brightside (the online platform).