WORKSHOP LED BY FIONA SOLER
Fiona Soler has been working in the Mentoring field since 2016, developing and supervising AFEV’s mentoring program as project manager. Offering quality mentoring to all those in need has been and continues to be their main priority.

In this context, Soler has been working towards homogenizing their professional practices by leading AFEV’s digital change while implementing innovative tools to better support their mentoring program. Throughout their investment in the European Center for Evidence Based Mentoring (ECEBM), thay have become their French partner associate as well as the head of Europe’s mentoring advocacy commission.

ABSTRACT
Hypothesis:
Given the social and educational impact of mentoring, Every youth at risk should have the right to have a mentor and everyone should have the chance to become a mentor. Being Mentored should be a right defended by our local organizations and raised to the highest level of the European institutions.

To raise awareness on mentoring and offer mentoring as a tool to fight against social exclusion all over Europe, we not only need to advocate for mentoring, we also need to develop tools that will help us keep up with this ambition, and offer the chance to all of the European students to become mentors.

After the implementation of the European Credit Transfer System and the reform to standardize university diplomas in Europe, we think that if we build sustainable collaborations with universities all over Europe we could offer the chance to a big number of student to become mentors and to be rewarded for that in their curriculum.

A public policy that encourages universities to recognize the participation of their students into mentoring programs will contribute to the successful development of mentoring programs and to a better recognition of the skills developed through engagement Especially if the mentoring programs are equipped with efficient monitoring tools.

Method:
In this workshop we will explore the different levels of mentoring recognition programs for students in European universities. We will focus on the specific case of France, where a law passed in 2017 requires universities to take action to recognize student engagement in their curriculums. We will present an innovative tool (digital platform) likely to enable:
– Students to train online for their mentoring experience, monitor their own mentoring sessions and assess the skills they have acquired
– Universities to monitor students’ progress in these 3 areas

Goal of the session:
During the session we will try to answer the following questions:
– How to build sustainable relations with universities and engage them in the development of mentoring?
– How to build collaboration between mentoring organizations in Europe?
– How can we raise awareness on mentoring in Europe through efficient tools?
– What skills are acquired after a mentoring experience? Why these sofskills are more and more attractive for recruiters?