Blog written by Anglia Ruskin student and JCI Member Marcel Goerlich

Business mentors from JCI Cambridge attend awards ceremony in recognition of their contribution to Anglia Ruskin University's Employer Mentoring Scheme.

For the last year a number of members from JCI Cambridge have been guiding, advising and imparting their business, experience and skills to second year students of Anglia University to help them understand and make the transition to employment and the business environment.

The JCI Cambridge mentors that volunteered to take part in the scheme were matched to the university students according to their career aspirations and the mentors skills. The mentors' role was to act as a 'business mentor' on a one-to-one basis providing a voice of experience for students. The JCI mentors helped to develop the students' their workplace skills, business awareness and gain an understanding of the workplace environment, its expectations and demands. The long-term purpose of mentoring is not only helping students to develop their professional skills, that one day the mentees would also be able to be involved at a later stage and pass on my knowledge and experience to a mentee.

Marcel Goerlich who was mentored by JCI Cambridge's Vice President James Mitchell explains "The mentoring scheme has been a very useful and enriching experience for me. This is due to th good mix of one-to-one sessions with my mentor James and the business networking/training events provided by JCI Cambridge.

My initial introductory session with James took place in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere where we discussed what we wanted to gain or offer to the scheme including what my main aims of being involved in the scheme were. For me, it was primarily to improve my professional skills such as giving presentations, networking and interview skills. For James it was that he wanted to help young people like me kick-start their careers by coaching them and giving honest, constructive feedback.

Based on this discussion we started talking about how James could help me during the following weeks and months. He suggested that I come along to JCI Cambridge events where I could practice my networking skills and take part in a variety of training events. In addition to this, James offered an opportunity to talk to his contact who worked in a recruitment agency and arranged a mock interview to practise my interviewing skills. After this meeting, I realised that it had been a really good idea to enrol on the scheme and that it would be really helpful, not just because of the opportunity to be mentored by James, but also to benefit from the opportunities provided by JCI Cambridge.

Now, several months after that initial meeting, I can confirm that the scheme has met all my expectations. At the JCI Cambridge meetings I had the chance to meet many interesting and like-minded people and I have definitely become more confident in group situations and networking. I received helpful hints to improve my interview skills and James successfully coached me to speak freely in front of people.