Rem Conway is one of six BBC mentors giving advice and insight in a pilot scheme with the National Mentoring Consortium. The NMC was a successful applicant through BBC Outreach’s Community Doorway programme. NMC s equality and diversity in graduate recruitment, enhancing the employability of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnicity students, and students with a disability or dyslexia. It works with 300 UK employers who provide volunteer mentors.
‘Having this role has stretched me, as I have had really to take the time to understand the person I am mentoring’
On a day-to-day basis I am usually working on BBC One’s daytime drama, Doctors, but for the past six months I have been mentoring Matt (I've changed his name), an undergraduate student from Birmingham University.
Mentors have always been a huge part of my own journey and a massive asset to my development in business and production so I have always had the desire to offer that development to somebody else.
Over the course of the scheme my mentee and I have met every fortnight to discuss a combination of different things that will develop his employability skills and prepare him for the big bad world of work.
What was interesting about being a mentor is that my mentee actually has all the skills he needs to be employed he just didn't know how to use them, and because of a lack of confidence in himself he could put barriers in his own way.
So for the early meetings we went through the usual documents and tools you think of – CV, job interviews, applications, and so on. And then once we’d been through those we focused on more of the personal things that might hold him back from reaching his goals.
I was then able to arrange some visits for him to the BBC so he could get a clear understanding of the industry and what he might do after university.
Having this role has stretched me, as I have had really to take the time to understand the person I am mentoring.
Things that are second nature to me may not be second nature to him so I had really to pay attention to how my mentee learns and what it is going to take to get him from where he is to where he wants to be.
It has been a pleasure working with the BBC Outreach team, before working for the BBC I only ever saw the things that transmit – programmes, radio shows, online videos, but it has been a great experience for me to get involved with the community outreach that the BBC does and which isn't always publicised.
From the from my mentee and his university, I am glad that they are all taking away a positive attitude towards BBC Outreach work, too.
BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community and staff volunteering.
