Student mentoring to enhance graduates' employability potential

Area of Science:

• Higher Education Pedagogy
• Employability Skills Development
• Student Mentoring Programs

Background:

• Higher education institutions increasingly focus on enhancing student employability pre-graduation.
• Traditional curricula may not fully equip students with the practical skills and confidence sought by employers.
• Extra-curricular, subject-specific mentoring offers a potential solution to bridge this gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a voluntary, classroom-based student mentoring scheme in enhancing undergraduate employability.
• To assess the skills and attributes developed by mentors within forensic and policing courses.
• To investigate the alignment between developed skills and employer recruitment terminology.

Main Methods:

• A three-year pilot program involving senior undergraduate students mentoring first-year students in forensic and policing courses.
• Quantitative analysis of anonymous online post-scheme surveys completed by 17 mentors.
• Reflection on the adaptation of mentoring to remote and blended learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Main Results:

• The mentoring scheme effectively developed undergraduate employability skills, notably enhancing mentors' self-confidence and self-efficacy in interpersonal and communication skills.
• Mentors recognized university graduate attributes but struggled to consistently articulate them using professional recruitment terminology.
• The study highlights the need for structured support to help students translate their experiences into employer-valued competencies.

Conclusions:

• Student mentoring is a valuable andragogic approach for enhancing higher education employability.
• A proposed framework can assist mentors in identifying and aligning their skills with employer competencies in forensic and policing fields.
• Integrating mentoring with other pedagogical strategies is recommended to maximize graduate employment potential.