Mentoring with Career Ready

We connect young people with inspiring mentors who help them to achieve their potential.

Whether you are a volunteer, employer, young person, school or college, find out more and how you can get involved.

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Ready to get involved?

Register with us as a mentor today…

Mentoring with

Mentoring with Career Ready

Career Ready

We connect young people with inspiring mentors who help them to achieve their potential.

Whether you are a volunteer, employer, young person, school or college, find out more and how you can get involved.

find out more
find out more
Sign up
find out more

Ready to get involved?

Register with us as a volunteer today…

About mentoring with Career Ready

For over 20 years, we’ve connected young people aged 15-18 with inspiring mentors who help them develop the workplace skills, self-esteem, and social capital they need to kickstart their futures.

For over 20 years, we’ve connected young people aged 15-18 with inspiring mentors who help them develop the workplace skills, self-esteem, and social capital they need to kickstart their futures.

Over the course of our Career Ready programme, students meet with a mentor at their workplace to speak about different career options and pathways, the world of work, and the skills needed to kickstart a rewarding future.

Each monthly session builds on the last, with students reflecting on their progress against our Skills for Career Success learning outcomes. Including:

  • Communications & Networking
  • Organisational Skills
  • Managing Myself
  • Problem Solving & Analysis

Find out more and how you can get involved:

As a volunteer you can make a transformational difference to a young person’s future. Using your experience, skills, and knowledge, you can give them the support they need to achieve their true potential.

Volunteering is also a fantastic way to develop your own professional skillset, enjoy a rewarding experience, and enhance your CV.

Over the course of our Career Ready programme, students meet with a mentor at one of our employer partners to speak about different career options and pathways, the world of work, and the skills needed to kickstart a rewarding future.

Each monthly session builds on the last, with students reflecting on their progress against our Skills for Career Success learning outcomes. Including:

  • Communications & Networking
  • Organisational Skills
  • Managing Myself
  • Problem Solving & Analysis

Find out more and how you can get involved:

Employers & Volunteers
Young People
Schools & Colleges
Employers & Volunteers
Young People
Schools & Colleges
Employers & Volunteers
Young People
Schools & Colleges

The power of volunteering

As well as making a lasting difference to a young person’s life, volunteering is a fantastic way to develop your own professional skill set, pass on your experience, and enhance your CV – it can even count towards many organisations’ CPD schemes.

Employers & volunteers

REGISTER TO VOLUNTEER

Becoming a Career Ready mentor is an inspiring, flexible way to help a young person unlock their true potential and discover the right career path for them.

It’s also a fantastic way for employers to provide rewarding volunteering opportunities for their team.

It involves a series of monthly meetings between a young person and a volunteer from the world of work. Students in England are aged 16-18, and 15-17 in Scotland.

Each meeting lasts between 60-90 minutes and the mentor and mentee speak about different career options and pathways, as well as the skills needed for the world of work.

We ask that our employer and volunteer partners work with us to provide paid internship opportunities for the young people they mentor.

Funding is also available for SMEs to cover the cost.

We provide ongoing support and training to volunteers, ensuring they have a rewarding and impactful experience. We particularly welcome applications from volunteers from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.

Discover where you can volunteer across England.

Volunteering in Scotland is only possible via an employer partnership

Mentor young people aged 15-18

Monthly meetings on different career topics

Onboarding training and support provided

Life changing impact on skills and confidence

Mentor young people aged 15-18

Monthly meetings on different career topics

Onboarding training and support provided

Life changing impact on skills and confidence

All we’ve got to do is source colleagues and Career Ready gives them a structured and meaningful volunteering opportunity. Career Ready’s role is also a catalyst because they understand both the private sector and the school reality.

Wojciech Ilowski, Industry Operations Leader, Marsh

Sign up to Mentor

Young people

Having a Career Ready mentor is your opportunity to tap into the workplace knowledge, skills, and experience of a volunteer from the world of work.

You will meet with your mentor once a month and chat about your career and education journey, helping you to discover different career options, pathways, and skills. You will also have the opportunity to gain further skills through our series of our masterclasses and then get to put them into action with a paid internship.

And once you’ve completed the programme you can join our Alumni Network and build your professional network even further by connecting with other students across the UK.

Laura’s support has helped me so much. My confidence has grown and she’s helped me with my CV as well as my personal statement to university. Thanks to her guidance, I now feel prepared to study pharmacy at university.

Zahrah Aljurani

Zahrah Aljurani, Career Ready Alumna

What are the benefits?

Having a mentor can be a life-changing experience. Through their support you can:

  • Learn new skills
  • Identify your strengths and develop new ones
  • Discover new careers and job roles
  • Grow in self-confidence
  • Build a network to support you in education and employment

Having a Career Ready mentor is your opportunity to tap into the workplace knowledge, skills, and experience of a volunteer from the world of work.

You will meet with your mentor once a month and chat about your career and education journey, helping you to discover different career options, pathways, and skills. You will also have the opportunity to gain further skills through our series of our masterclasses and then get to put them into action with a paid internship.

And once you’ve completed the programme you can join our Alumni Network and build your professional network even further by connecting with other students across the UK.

Laura’s support has helped me so much. My confidence has grown and she’s helped me with my CV as well as my personal statement to university. Thanks to her guidance, I now feel prepared to study pharmacy at university.

Zahrah Aljurani

Zahrah Aljurani, Career Ready Alumna

What are the benefits?

Having a mentor can be a life-changing experience. Through their support you can:

  • Learn new skills
  • Identify your strengths and develop new ones
  • Discover new careers and job roles
  • Grow in self-confidence
  • Build a network to support you in education and employment

Laura’s support has helped me so much. My confidence has grown and she’s helped me with my CV as well as my personal statement to university. Thanks to her guidance, I now feel prepared to study pharmacy at university.

Zahrah Aljurani

Zahrah Aljurani, Career Ready Alumna

Schools & colleges

Mentoring is a high-impact, no-cost way of ensuring that your learners have additional support in making informed decisions about their future education and career.

We work across the UK, in partnership with schools and colleges, to provide young people aged 15-18 with inspiring mentors from the world of work.

We specialise in supporting young people who lack the opportunities, networks, and confidence to reach their potential, providing them with the support they need to kickstart a rewarding and successful future.

How it works

Mentoring is a series of monthly meetings, each one building on the last, between a Career Ready student and a volunteer from the world of work.

Our mentoring programme in England supports young people aged 16-18 and runs from January-December. We  aim to ensure that each student is provided with a paid internship at their mentor’s workplace as part of our programme. 

In Scotland, we support young people aged 15-17 (S5/S6), running for 18 months from October, with each student guaranteed a paid internship at the workplace of their mentor.

Over the course of the programme, students, with their mentors, reflect on their progress mapped against our Skills for Career Success learning outcomes. Including:

  • Communications & Networking
  • Organisational Skills
  • Managing Myself
  • Problem Solving & Analysis

All Career Ready mentors are DBS-checked and advised on safeguarding principles and codes of conduct prior to being matched with a young person.

There is no cost to our partner schools & colleges for our mentoring programme.

What impact does it have on students?

Career Ready mentors can transform lives, providing their mentee with the skills, confidence, and attitude to reach their potential and kickstart a rewarding future.

98% of our students went onto a positive destination after graduating from the programme, compared to the national average of 89%, with a growing number selecting to do degree apprenticeship in a business they know.

Our mentoring programme is a high-impact, no-cost way of ensuring that your learners have additional support in making informed decisions about their future education and career.

We work across the UK, in partnership with 400+ schools and colleges, to provide young people aged 15-18 with inspiring mentors from the world of work.

We specialise in supporting young people who lack the opportunities, networks, and confidence to reach their potential, providing them with the support they need to kickstart a rewarding and successful future.

What impact does it have on students?

Career Ready mentors can transform lives, providing their mentee with the skills, confidence, and attitude to reach their potential and kickstart a rewarding future.

Last year, we supported 4,000+ young people on our mentoring programme.

98% of our students went onto a positive destination after graduating from the programme, compared to the national average of 89%, with a growing number selecting to do degree apprenticeship in a business they know.

How it works

Our mentoring programme is a series of monthly meetings, each one building on the last, between a Career Ready student and a volunteer from the world of work.

Our mentoring programme in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland supports young people aged 16-18 and runs from January-December. We also aim to ensure that each student is provided with a paid work place experience as part of our programme. 

In Scotland, we support young people aged 15-17 (S5/S6), running for 18 months from October, with each student guaranteed a paid internship at the workplace of their mentor.

Over the course of the programme, students, with their mentors, reflect on their progress mapped against our Skills for Career Success learning outcomes. Including:

  • Communications & Networking
  • Organisational Skills
  • Managing Myself
  • Problem Solving & Analysis

All Career Ready mentors are DBS-checked and advised on safeguarding principles and codes of conduct prior to being matched with a young person.

There is no cost to our partner schools & colleges for our mentoring programme.

How mentoring transforms lives

Our mentor relationship have helped to change the lives of thousands of young people across the UK.

0%
of young people feel more confident at the end of the programme
0%
of volunteers experienced a positive impact on their skills, wellbeing, or work life
0%
of mentors felt they made a lasting difference to their mentee

I started volunteering to help a young person fulfil their potential. Not only am I witnessing that impact, but it’s enriching my own sense of purpose.

Jenny Pelling

Jenny Pelling, Kaplan Financial, Kaplan Financial

The power of volunteering
The power of volunteering

Our mentor relationship have helped to change the lives of thousands of young people across the UK.

0%
of young people feel more confident at the end of the programme
0%
of volunteers experienced a positive impact on their skills, wellbeing, or work life
0%
of mentors felt they made a lasting difference to their mentee.

I started volunteering to help a young person fulfil their potential. Not only am I witnessing that impact, but it’s enriching my own sense of purpose.

Jenny Pelling

Jenny Pelling, Kaplan Financial, Kaplan Financial

The power of volunteering

Let's get started

FAQs

We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds. We believe in the power of your shared experiences, whether you are one year or ten years into your career. And we are keen to receive applications from volunteers who represent the diversity of our students.

We ask that our volunteers are currently in employment, as this allows the potential to offer students more opportunities.

In Scotland, you must work with one of our employer partners and be nominated by them to volunteer.

You don’t need any specific qualifications or experience to volunteer, but we do look for the following qualities and behaviours:

  • Reliable
  • Caring
  • Inspiring
  • Empathetic
  • Patient
  • Outgoing
  • Open-minded

Please note, our aim is to provide a paid internship to all of our young people on the Career Ready Programme, as such, we do have to prioritise mentoring places to volunteers who are able to provide an internship and/or come through one of our funding partners. However, we do still welcome applications from all volunteers, as we may still have some places available for those who cannot provide an internship.

Our volunteer sign-up page will also advise if there are any regions no longer recruiting for due to volunteer numbers being met for our 2025-26 programme cohort.

We offer different volunteer opportunities you can mentoring a young person, deliver a masterclass and offer a summer paid internship Check the details of our roles.

Yes, you carry out more than one volunteering role. For example, you can host an internship, deliver a masterclass or provide a workplace, plus mentor a young person at the same time. What you wish to do will depend on the time you have available.

Our volunteer roles are perfect if you work while volunteering, as it can be accommodated to your timetable.

How much of your time you need to give will vary depending on your volunteer role.

A mentor is expected to meet their mentee once a month from January to December and meetings are approximately one hour, so it would be about 12 hours per year. You will also need to factor in time to complete our mentor training, which is approximately two hours for a new volunteer. You can complete this online and at a time to suit you.

If you choose to deliver a masterclass this might be a one-off session and our Masterclasses run for one hour and we suggest you allow an hour for preparation time. All Masterclass presentations are pre-written and provided in advance to our volunteers.

Depending on the volunteer role you choose, you may need a DBS check.

All our mentors must have an Enhanced DBS check, either through Career Ready, or with another organisation if you belong to the DBS update services so we can check it. An Enhanced DBS is required as mentors are meeting one-to-one with a young person.

We will invite you to complete a DBS check when applying to become a mentor. This process is free of charge for our volunteers.

If you are volunteering to host an internship, deliver a masterclass or workplace visit you do not need to have a DBS, as you will not be alone with a young person.

We operate in a variety of areas across the UK in England and Scotland. Please see our map of where we work for further information.

We work in a variety of locations within the UK, where possible we will try to match you to a centre close to your workplace or home depending on what your preference is.

You will need to meet your mentee in person for the majority of your meetings. We strongly encourage or mentors to hold their sessions in the workplace as this provides our young people with the experience of a professional environment, however if this is not possible you can meet in a public place such as a coffee shop or at your mentee’s school or college.

Here are our locations.

We offer a variety of training and support to our volunteers.

If you are mentoring with us, we will ask you to attend a live mentor briefing and complete two training modules online including Safeguarding.

You will also have the support of your own regional manager and the volunteering team. We also provide a host of resources to also ensure you feel confident and prepared for your mentoring role.

If you are delivering a masterclass for us, we provide the full presentation with presenter’s notes. We also offer the option of an online live training session with a member of the Career Ready team before your delivery or a recording of this to help you feel prepared. You will also have a Career Ready member of staff available to answer any questions about the event and location.

We do our best to match you where you have specified but this is not always possible. We prioritise our matches based on the address you have provided to ensure you and your mentee are in reasonable reach of one another.

If you or a young person are at risk to themselves or in immediate danger, phone 999.

If you are concerned about the safety or welfare of one of our young people and it is not an emergency requiring 999, your first contact should be made to the young person’s school or college, if you are unable to contact the school or college by phone, you should CC in your Career Ready Regional Manager to any emails sent to the school or college coordinator, they may also be able to help.

If you have a Safeguarding concern but there is no immediate danger or risk to the young person or yourself and if you are unable to contact the student’s school or college co-ordinator, you can contact Career Ready’s Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO): Sian Robertson, Director of Programme & Operations: 07525 754 829, sian.robertson@careerready.org.uk

You will need to have a UK address to be able to mentor, as you will be asked to complete an Enhanced DBS check with Career Ready before you will be able to mentor a young person one to one. All our volunteering opportunities are also in-person, so you will need to be able to volunteer in-person within one of our regions we support.

Volunteers from the EU

The UK is no longer a member of the European Union. But EU nationals can still volunteer in the UK if:

  • They have settled or pre-settled status
  • They have a visa that allows them to volunteer
  • They’re volunteering with an EU-funded programme like Erasmus + or the European Solidarity Corps

You can also see this guidance from the NCVO.

Volunteers from outside of the EU

Please see government advice and personal visas for details or restrictions.

Depending on the role you undertake, we may ask you to commit to up to a year, this would be for our mentoring opportunities.

However, we do understand that personal circumstances can change which could affect your ability to volunteer. You can always contact us if you need to talk to us about your situation.

If you cannot commit to 12 months as a mentor, you can always volunteer for one of our other roles such as delivering a masterclass, which can be just one session or hosting a four-week paid internship during the summer.

Volunteers are covered by the Career Ready insurance policy while engaged in any volunteering on behalf of Career Ready. If you require further information, please contact info@careerready.org.uk

Please contact your Career Ready Regional Manager or you can contact info@careerready.org.uk if your circumstances have changed so we can support you with this.

Career Ready does not reimburse volunteers’ expenses.

Ready to get involved?

Register with us as a volunteer today…

Ready to get involved?

Register with us as a volunteer today…

Let's get started

Let's get started

FAQs

We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds. We believe in the power of your shared experiences, whether you are one year or ten years into your career. And we are keen to receive applications from volunteers who represent the diversity of our students.

We prefer our volunteers to be in employment as it allows the potential to offer students more opportunities. In Scotland, you must work with one of our employer partners and be nominated by them to volunteer.

You don’t need any specific qualifications or experience to volunteer, but we do look for the following qualities and behaviours:

  • Reliable
  • Caring
  • Inspiring
  • Empathetic
  • Patient
  • Outgoing
  • Open-minded

Yes you can do more than one volunteer role. For example you could be part of the Local Advisory Board in a school and mentor a young person at the same time. This will depend on the role available around you.

This will vary depending on your volunteer role. A mentor is expected to meet their mentee once a month for a year, so it would be about 12 hours a year. If you deliver a masterclass this night be a one off session. Our volunteer roles are perfect if you work while volunteering as it can be accommodated to your timetable.

You will need a DBS check depending on your volunteer role. All our mentors are DBS checked as they are meeting their mentee on a one to one basis. We will invite you to complete a DBS check when applying to become a mentor. This process is free of charge for the volunteer.

We operate across the UK, in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Scotland.

There are no restrictions on volunteering for people from within the EU/European Economic Activity (EEA) area. However, for people outside the EU/EEA, there are various restrictions based on what type of visa you are travelling on. You can find more information on the NCVO website: https://knowhow.ncvo.org.uk/your-team/volunteers/recruiting/volunteers-from-overseas

People are allowed to volunteer while claiming state benefits, including means-tested benefits such as jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), incapacity benefit, income support, and employment and support allowance (ESA).

You can volunteer as many hours as you like while you’re getting benefits as long as you keep to the rules for getting them.

Depending on the role you undertake, we may ask for a commitment of up to a year. Of course we understand that your personal situation may change which could affect your availability as a volunteer. You can always contact us if you need to discuss your situation.

Volunteers are covered by the Career Ready insurance policy while engaged in any work on behalf of Career Ready.

We can provide you with a reference after you have been actively volunteering with us for a minimum of 6 months. Please note that this will be a reference with only factual information.

Ready to get involved?

Register with us as a mentor today…