Over 50 Career Academies mentors and students met for the first time to embark on the 18 month-long mentoring process, which is a core focus of our Career Academies programme at the ‘Meet & Greet’ for 2015-16. AXA Insurance generously hosted this event at their head office in Dublin on 26th February.
AXA Insurance, BNY Mellon, Citi and Pioneer Investments have enabled volunteers from their organisations to be trained as mentors and have made their facilities availble to allow participants to meet and work together over the course of the programme.
At the Meet & Greet, each participant enjoyed light refreshments and group ‘ice breaker’ activities, leading into the first discussions between mentor and mentee in a relaxed and friendly environment. Over the course of the next few months, mentors will meet with their assigned students approximately ten times to help them develop their employability skills, with the very real focus of preparing for internships this summer or next.
Career Academies involves 30 transition year students from St. Paul’s CBS, Dublin 7; Loreto College Crumlin, Dublin 12 and Our Lady of Mercy College, Beaumont, Dublin 9. Each student is selected following a in-school process to identify those who are most likely to take advantage of the opportunities offered to particpants. In addition to mentoring and internships, our Career Academies students participate in several school to work visits and enjoy guru lectures from business ambassadors.
The overall aim of Career Academies is to enable students to develop employability skills, gaining a greater degree of maturity and work readiness. Their work in the course of the programme should also ensure they are in in a position to make informed choices about their higher and further education options.
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to our mentors and all the supporting organisations involved. We look forward to hearing how things progress over the coming months!