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Stephen Lawrence Trust Mentoring Scheme

AfC are liaising with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust to provide student mentors and guidance to support entry into architecture for 16-19 year olds.

The SLCT are currently delivering a six-month seminar course for twenty-five 16-19 year olds, who have been identified by the SLCT as having a strong interest and potential for a

career in architecture. It is proposed that the scheme will help the young people develop their skills and aid them in their steps towards applying to university, through a range of activities including competitions, model-making, interview skills and portfolio guidance.

Fifteen of the young people from this group will receive additional support during the six month programme, in the form of mentoring from Part 1 and 2 architecture students. The mentors, who will be trained volunteers, will provide one-to-one provision appropriate to the need of the mentee, to help them in achieving specific goals.

In turn, the student mentors are also receiving support with their own progression through the architectural education process through workshops delivered by a group of academics and the student association ARCHAOS.

Career Stage Mentoring

It is anticipated that the Stephen Lawrence Scheme will contribute to the longer term plan of AfC to develop mentoring schemes focusing on key 'make or break' stages in architect's careers. Once resources for this project are secured, it is anticipated that this scheme will involve collaboration with like-minded organisations and with mentoring specialists and members of RIBA professional and student networks.

A group of AfC members are currently looking at the level of mentoring that some practitioners may have access to and the types of schemes in place within practices. If you can provide examples of mentoring within practices, and have the permission of the practice, we'd be pleased to hear from you - please email lucie.gibson@inst.riba.org|.