Mentoring at CUEA
CUEA runs a mentoring scheme each year that is open to all CUEA members, both alumni and students. The mentoring scheme has benefits for members at all stages of their education and career. Established professional alumni across many fields of engineering and related careers sign up to provide valuable advice to early career alumni and students alike.
Whatever your professional development goals, there is likely someone on the mentoring scheme that can assist you.
Whatever your professional achievements, there is likely someone that can benefit from your advice.
CUED Students
You might be looking for CV or job application advice, interested in finding out more about a specific part of the industry or guidance on choosing your specialism. For postgraduate students, this might also mean advice on a career in academia – you are most likely to be mentees, but post-graduates may choose to be a mentor as well.
Early Career Alumni
You might still be looking for advice on CV and interview techniques, chartership and coaching through the first stages of Professional Development. You will also have invaluable advice for students a few years behind you as you are familiar with what the course currently looks like and have navigated those initial career steps recently – you might be both mentees and mentors
Established Professional Alumni
You provide a broad variety of extensive knowledge. You will be able to coach the other groups, share your experiences and support mentees those less experienced to meet their goals – you are most likely to be mentors
Mentoring Scheme 2023/24
We have just completed another year of the CUEA Mentoring Scheme. Thank you to everyone who took part in the mentoring scheme in 2023/24. We had 326 mentors signed up on MentorCity this year with 124 of you engaged in new mentoring relationships this year (many more choosing to continue relationships established in previous years). In total, you supported 161 mentees, made up of 100 undergraduate students, 14 postgraduate students and 47 alumni.
If you have participated in the mentoring scheme this year, please provide your feedback using the following feedback form so we can continue to improve the scheme
Expected Scheme Format for 2024/25
Launch: mid-November
We will launch the CUEA Mentoring Scheme mid-November with an online introductory event. From that date, students and alumni can begin setting up profiles on our MentorCity platform and searching for a mentor. Students and alumni are invited to join the event to learn about the platform, the changes that have been made, and tips for setting up a successful mentoring relationship. A recording of the session will be made available.
Matching: November to January
We will be using the MentorCity platform to facilitate the matching process. You will be able to search for a mentor or mentee yourself, using the platforms search feature. We will also run the platform's matching algorithm in December. The algorithm matches profiles based on common key words. This is overseen by the Mentor Scheme Coordinator, but with 300 active profiles, it is a time consuming process and sometimes unsuitable matches slip through, so we recommend trying out the search feature yourself to increase your likelihood of a good match.
Establishing Your Channels: until mid-January
The MentorCity platform will close in mid-January, so we advise you to exchange contact details with your mentors and mentees as soon as possible and take communication away from the platform. We have found, in general, relationships have been more successful when messaging and video calls are conducted independently from the platform.
Scheme wrap up
The formal part of the CUEA mentoring scheme will end six months after matching - we recommend maintaining a minimum of 6 months contact with your partner. You are free to continue your reationship after this time, but the support and resources offered by CUEA are intended to be most relevant in the first 6 months. At the end of the scheme you will be invited to complete a feedback survey so that amendments can be made to the scheme before relaunching the following autumn.
How do I get involved?
We are currently between schemes. We will be relaunching in the Autumn and information will be sent out via email and posted here nearer the time. The best way to keep updated about the mentoring scheme is to sign up to the CUEA
CUEA Mentoring Guide
Before getting started, you should read the CUEA Mentoring Guide. This details the commitment we expect from you and some tips on how to get started. Should you have any questions on the content please email Rachel at mentoring@cuea.uk.
*We are currently updating the CUEA Mentoring Guide - please check back in the Autumn to access the latest version*