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Apprentices

Become an apprentice mentor

Why has the National Apprenticeship Service formed a partnership with horsesmouth?

We have formed a partnership with Horsesmouth to encourage people who have been through an Apprenticeship to mentor and inspire others in a safe and friendly social online environment. We believe this allows us to scale the impact of mentoring and reach people who might otherwise be hard to reach.

What are the benefits of signing up as a mentor on horsesmouth?

It's an easy and flexible way to volunteer and give something back, and a meaningful way to enjoy communicating online. It’s social networking with a real social purpose. It requires only that you take it seriously and are ready to participate in the community. Who knows, you may also benefit from the experience of others.

What makes Horsesmouth safe?

Safety is “designed-in” at Horsesmouth and we are confident that it is an environment where people feel safe and comfortable.

We require secure mobile phone registration for mentors, and all profiles and content published on the site is pre- moderated by a leading internet moderation company. All private messages are scanned for a large range of key words that also trigger pre-moderation.

Horsesmouth is anonymous, connecting people through a username and icon. No photographs are used anywhere on the site and no personal details are published other than what you choose to include in your mentor profile.

What does becoming a mentor involve?

To become a mentor you need to fill in a mentor profile, telling users a little bit about you and detailing up to three specific topics where you feel you can offer advice. It is worth putting aside 10-15 minutes to fill in your mentor profile. You should think about the key words you use in your section headings as these will help our members find you eg “engineering Apprenticeships”.

When your profile comes up in a mentee search they can choose to get in touch with you on the site or to read the “wisdom” you’ve published.

By actively looking at mentor requests on the site you can proactively initiate mentoring relationships and answer more general requests.

How much of my time do I need to give?

You can give as much or as little time you want, and you can do this whenever you have half an hour at your computer.

Horsesmouth has tools available to stop you being bombarded with too many messages, such as being able to set a time limit of how much mentoring you want to do a week and setting your profile to be busy or unavailable.

Can I meet up with people who I am mentoring or being mentored by?

We strongly discourage people from meeting up with their mentor or mentee and the moderation process blocks any attempt to do so. Horsesmouth is really a “venue” for online mentoring.

However, in this partnership if you and your “mentee” would like to meet please contact customer services and they can approve the release of contact details.

I’m interested in signing up. What do I do next?

If you click Join or Register on the mentoring facility then you can complete a registration to become a member on Horsesmouth and the system will recognise you as an apprenticeships partner.

As and when you want to become a mentor you will be prompted to give your mobile number and a four digit security pin code will be sent to your mobile phone. You should use this four digit code to complete your secure registration. (No-one will ever contact you on this phone number- it’s just a security feature to help make the site safe).

You can then fill in your more detailed mentor profile. This will take around 10 - 15 minutes. All profiles are approved before posting.

What can I do as a mentor?

As a mentor you can: