Mentor students online Volunteer

Overview

Mentoring helps people dream bigger and reach higher. As an SMF mentor, you'll help talented young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds thrive in education and work.

What difference will you make?

Whilst talent is everywhere, regardless of social background, sadly, opportunity is not. Our SMF students face additional barriers to accessing top professions and they lack the support networks to help get them there. With the help of our fabulous mentors we support thousands of students each year across the UK to gain knowledge, develop skills, and feel confident that they can achieve their aspirations.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for someone with several years of experience and knowledge of their career sector, who is willing to share this with students. Ideally, volunteers will be understanding and encouraging to support a young person who is at the very beginning of their career journey. They will also be able to help students plan, research, and develop their time management, as well as professional skills such as networking and communication.

We are particularly looking for volunteers with expertise in the following sectors:

• Accountancy
• Banking & Finance
• Law
• Medicine
• Politics
• Science & Engineering
• Technology

Ideally, volunteers will have had experience of recruitment processes within their sector, and will have strong communication skills.

As a mentor you would support a 16-17 year old for around 9 months (April 2026 - January 2027). Matches are made based on career sector interest and typically you would support with career insight, professional skill development, CV guidance, and support with post-18 choices and Personal Statements for example.

Mentoring pairs communicate via our online messaging platform but also have the option to attend virtual events and have phone calls depending on their preferences. We ask mentors to commit around 1-2 hours per month to their mentoring relationship and be in contact around every two weeks throughout the programme.

Volunteers can sign up on our website until the 6th of March 2026 and we will be in touch with further details. For safeguarding purposes, all mentors must complete a DBS/PVG background check before they can be matched but the SMF will arrange this free of charge. Please feel free to contact the team (m) if you have any questions.