Students benefiting from confidence building mentoring programme
Two Health and Social Care students at Stoke on Trent College have praised a mentoring programme which has helped boost their confidence and allow them to support others.
Umaiza Noveed and Aniqah Razwan joined the mentoring programme during their first year studying at Level 2, and now in their second year of Level 3 Health & Social Care, they are now both peer mentors at the Cauldon campus.
“Peer mentoring is where we support and guide students that perhaps want to speak to someone their own age. We have to adapt to the different people, to be able to get them to open up so we can help,” Umaiza explained.
Both Umaiza and Aniqah heard about the programme from College Mentor Steve Taylor, and saw this as an opportunity to open up more, increase their confidence and really embrace college life.
Umaiza noted, that coming to College can be daunting at first, as it’s a big change from the high school environment.
“It’s a big jump from high school, and completely different. You get treated more as adults,” she said.
Aniqah was quite nervous coming to College for the first time but has seen multiple benefits from the mentoring programme.
“It helped me to open up to more people, I wasn’t really confident, but since I’ve come to college, my confidence level has really been boosted.
“I’ve certainly become more cheerful, and more positive in everyday life,” Aniqah said.
Umaiza also highlighted the benefits mentoring has given her during her course, such as improved social skills plus improving her teamwork skills for presentations.
As part of the Peer Mentors programme, the group is part of a number of events and initiatives across the academic year, working with the Enrichment team and the Student Union.
Umaiza’s desire to become more involved in college activities has also seen her become part of the Student Executive Committee.
Aniqah believes that being a peer mentor will have multiple benefits for her career aspirations too.
“I really liked the idea of helping people, and enjoy talking to people, so being a peer mentor helps me to work with other students who may need help.
“I want to be a Social Worker in the future, so being a peer mentor has helped with my career aspirations,” Aniqah said.
Umaiza and Aniqah are continuing to boost their CVs, by taking on work experience with the Mentoring team and the Student Union, respectively.
“I’m looking forward to it and meeting more students from the College,” Aniqah said.
Both have also championed the college enrichment programme, which runs a variety of activities at both campuses throughout the academic year.
“I would recommend joining the enrichment programme because you will meet new people, make new friends and it will help you to open up more,” Aniqah added.
