Faculty of Business and Law awarded funding to set up mentoring programme for undergraduate students from under-represented backgrounds.
The Faculty of Business and Law has recently been awarded funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to set up a mentoring programme for undergraduate students from under-represented backgrounds to encourage and support their progression into postgraduate study. This scheme also works with Legal Practice Course students to encourage and support their progression into legal work.
The newest member of the Faculty, Beverley Rizzotto, is coordinating these new projects in her role as law mentoring programme coordinator. One of the projects that will be implemented is a Mentoring Programme, where undergraduate students will have the opportunity to be paired up with a mentor from the Legal Practice Course (LPC). The structured programme will help students to find out more about the LPC, career options, and provide assistance with applying for jobs and work experience, as well as networking.
The first programme will run for one to two weeks from Wednesday 16 July 2014. Mentees will have ten sessions with a trained mentor where they will be given the opportunity to seek opinions and information from them in relation to all aspects of legal training and education. This is a fantastic opportunity for the undergraduate students to gain information, share experiences, concerns and doubts from someone who has been through the LLB, and is familiar with their position. It will also look great on their CV as a mentee or mentor, helping students to stand out to employers in their hunt for a work placement or training contract.
The next programme is due to begin from September 2014, which will see LLB undergraduate students paired up with a mentor, again from the LPC over the course of six months. LPC students will also have the opportunity to be paired with a mentor, a solicitor in practice at a local law firm, in order to gain advice, support and guidance, covering (but not limited to) the following areas: making applications for training contracts, gaining work experience, networking, and advice on practice areas.
If you are a LLB student or LPC student, and you are interested in the scheme, please contact Beverley Rizzotto b.rizzotto@londonmet.ac.uk to find out more about the programmes.
