The Aim.
To support young employees to develop, grow in confidence and become an even more valuable asset for their employers.
The Idea
“After many years of mentoring within my job and voluntary roles, I decided to introduce mentoring as a Stay Bright service for one simple reason.
“I feel mentoring is a powerful but under-rated approach, which can see real results and impact with young people.
“It’s never been more challenging for a young person starting employment or early in their career. They faces challenges like hybrid working, artificial intelligence, employers facing challenging budgets and more.
“There are some fantastic mentoring programmes to get young people into work, but a gap for those who are already in employment.
“I believe in young people. I believe in mentoring. And I believe that Stay Bright Mentoring can help employees and employers to enhance working relationships, build confidence, increase staff retention, and so much more. “
The Experience
When you sign up to mentoring, you’re entrusting your employees to Stay Bright. It’s crucial that it works for your organisation and the employee. And that means Stay Bright must have the right experience and understanding to implement it properly and effectively.
Previous Mentoring
I have nearly 20 years of mentoring experience to draw on, across relaxed and more formal approaches, and including setting up an award winning mentoring network.
Working With Young People
Across my time at Stay Bright, Young Scot and DC Thomson, I’ve worked directly with young people. This has allowed me to develop an effective engagement approach, at the heart of my mentoring work.
Management Experience
Stay Bright Mentoring is designed to complement the work of a line manager. Having previously been a manager at operational and senior level, I understand the pressures and focus mentoring to help.
The Bio
“I’ve spent most of my career working with or for young people.
“Stay Bright was launched in 2013, focusing on content and social media. A number of my clients have been from the Third Sector, and in particular organisations working with young people.
“Prior to that I spent 11 years at Young Scot, the National Youth Information Agency for Scotland. Joining from publishers DC Thomson, where I’d written for young people’s magazines, my first role was creating content for the book, magazine and website.
“I held a number of roles within the organisation as we adapted to the increasing presence of digital technology. From developing and delivering training directly to young people and youth workers to testing and implementing new digital engagement tools, my favourite part of the role was when I got speak directly to young people.
“I began informally mentoring young people on placement at Young Scot, before volunteering with Volunteer Centre Edinburgh, then Project Scotland to mentor people across a diverse range of backgrounds.
“In 2012 I set up a mentoring network within Young Scot, as part of our new Digital Modern Apprenticeship programme. Nine MAs were on placement across Young Scot and other partner organisations, and I trained Young Scot staff to be mentors to each apprentice. Once the programme went live, I mentored each of the staff mentors to ensure they felt confident in their new role.”
