Easter Newsletter 2021
MADRINHA TRUST AWARDS 2021
At the end of December 2020 all mentors with graduating mentees were asked to put their mentees forward for an award as set out by the Career Build Team (CBT). The Mentor Mentee Assessment Form was a new initiative introduced specifically for us to track the positive journey of our mentees.
These nominations were then passed to Mark Laverty and Will Dear from our CBT to select and appoint suitably matched awards. We then had a bit of a struggle to fit all the words in and had to go back to the drawing board to make a few edits 😆!
It gives Madrinha Trust GREAT PLEASURE to announce the 2021 MT AWARD WINNERS as follows:
The TOP 4 award winners are Angham, Collins, Diana and Shirat, who were the most exceptional students from 2020.
We are then delighted to award the following Mentees Madrinha Trust 2021 Awards:
Individual MT Award Badges have been especially designed to be added to CVs and LinkedIn profiles as points of interest and CV boosters alongside the fact that we are allowing all our graduates to put that they have been the beneficiaries of a Madrinha Trust scholarship.
BUDDY PROGRAMME 2021
In JANUARY 2021 we launched the Madrinha Trust Six Month (career focused) Buddy Programme for Graduates & Graduating Mentees.
Madrinha Trust is fully committed to ensure that all our mentees are given the best possible support to enable them to get into the job market. We have seen that there is a genuine skills gap which needs to be addressed. The Career Build Team (CBT) was set up in January 2020 to look into ways in which we could “fix” this.
We have put together the Six Month Buddy Programme which is lead by young professionals and existing Madrinha Mentors from the CBT, as well as four additional Buddy Leaders /professionals from Apple.
ALL workshops start at 10.30am (UK) time:
• Career Workshop: Transferable Skills (19 Jan 2021)
• Linked-in Profile: “How to Link in?” (27 Jan 2021)
• CV: Tailor-making your CV & Researching Opportunities : How, What Where? (24 Feb 2021)
• Keep your flow and build RESILIENCE (31 March 2021)
• Passion & Authenticity: How to be the Cherry on Top Part 1 & 2 (12 Apr & 28 Apr 2021)
• Career Workshop: Interview Techniques, Prep work, IQ Tests, Role Play etc (26 May 2021)
• Toastmasters: You Have One Minute (30 Jun 2021)
• Buddy Round Up : Each mentee will speak for 2 minutes about the Buddy Programme, giving feedback and aspirations. (28 July 2021)
The Buddy Programme has been running small career focused buddy groups of between 4 and 6 mentees every 2 weeks alongside the Workshops we are running. Each buddy group has an assigned Buddy Leader as well as a mentee team captain from the peer group, encouraging peer-to-peer support on the ground.
We are also very conscious that Madrinha mentors continue to be part of the process supporting the CV and LinkedIn profile writing as set by the Buddy Programme in order to keep mentees career focused.
Mentees’ commitment to the Buddy Programme is essential and is part of the giving back pledge made when they accepted funding from Madrinha Trust.
Mentees who cannot attend the workshops on any given day will be sent a recording of the event immediately afterwards via WhatsApp and urged to run the session on the same day at a time that does work for them so that the flow is not interrupted for the scheduled buddy group session work.
GIVING BACK BY GRADUATE MENTEES
As well as looking for jobs upon graduation we expect graduating mentees to start giving back to their community. They can contact their introducing partner charities to see if they can volunteer for them and their community. It is clear that employers are impressed with candidates who involve themselves in voluntary community projects, so this is viewed as a positive addition to CVs / LinkedIn profiles.
Alongside this - as we get a clearer picture of where graduates are hoping to find work - we are appealing to our Madrinha Trust mentors, friends and family to ask amongst your corporate contacts if they have any opportunities in the countries we are in? Specifically, internships, work placements and jobs. The CBT, through our network, will happily contact any local companies that you introduce us to in order for us to generate some opportunities for our mentees.
And finally …..
SUMMER PARTY : 19 JULY 2021
Thank goodness after over a year of UK lockdown we are planning a party to thank all our mentors, their partners and friends and UK partner charity representatives for keeping us all going and, more importantly, for keeping our mentees going through an unprecedentedly difficult year.
Ironically, we feel lockdown has brought the Madrinha Trust family closer together. Regular Zoom meet ups and communication between partner charities, mentors and mentees in the form of cluster groups really kick started our awareness of how much we can make a difference.
