Long-term mentoring

The Career Mentoring Programme (CMP) is open to:

• undergraduate students in their second and third years
• all postgraduate students
• recent graduates from the last three years

If you're in your first year of undergraduate study, try our Ask a Mentor Service or group mentoring.

Cycle one: November to April

• Applications open in September
• If your application succeeds, we'll ask you to complete mentee training to help you get the most out of the programme
• Once you have completed the training stage, we'll invite you to accept a place and commit to the programme
• After you accept, we'll spend four weeks hand-matching you to a suitable mentor
• You'll find out if we've found you someone by the end of October
• Mentoring takes place from November to April
• You'll have a minimum of five mentoring sessions across six months

Cycle two: May to July

• Applications open in January
• If your application succeeds, you'll be asked to complete a module to help you get the most out of the programme
• Once you pass the post-module quiz, we'll invite you to accept a place on the programme
• After you accept, we'll spend four weeks hand-matching you to a suitable mentor
• You'll find out if we've found you someone by the beginning of April
• Mentoring takes place from May to July
• You will have a minimum of three mentoring sessions across 12 weeks

Mentors work across a variety of sectors, including:

• architecture, property and construction
• arts and the creative industries
• business and consulting
• charity, voluntary and non-profit
• civil service and government
• education and teaching
• finance and banking
• health and social care
• law and legal services
• marketing, advertising and PR
• media and publishing
• sciences and research
• technology, data and computing

To ensure this is the right pathway for you and your unique requirements, we'll look at:

• the quality of your application
• your personal goals and what you aim to achieve specifically from the programme
• whether we have available mentors that suit your needs

The pathway is popular, and we may only have a certain number of available mentors within a chosen industry. There are some points you should be aware of.

• We'll work hard to match you with someone from your desired industry, but this is not guaranteed
• We may match you with a mentor from a different field, who can offer transferrable advice and access to their professional networks
• If we can't find a suitable and available mentor, we may transfer you to the next mentoring cycle or find an appropriate mentor for a one-off conversation through the Ask a Mentor service

If your application is successful, and you accept your place on the mentoring programme, you'll agree to:

• have the minimum number of mentoring sessions required for each cycle, with each session to last at least one hour
• take the lead in scheduling these meetings, developing your learning objectives and providing us with monthly session logs through CareerZone
• submit a mid-term review and an end-of-programme evaluation form, so that we can see how you’re getting on and how we can improve
• get in touch with us if you experience any mentoring-related issues: [email protected]Email us about the Career Mentoring Programme

This pathway is open to:

• undergraduate students in their second and third years
• all postgraduate students
• students who come from a lower socio-economic background or are under-represented

In this context, 'lower socio-economic background' might mean:

• you received or were eligible for free school meals at any point before university
• you received a higher bursary
• your household was on a low income or had no income
• you're an international student from a less privileged background*

*Please note, if you're an international student, the support we can offer is impacted by whether you'd be eligible to work in the Civil Service. We recommend you read the government's guidance on the Right to Work in the UK.

If you're not sure if you're eligible, you can email us at [email protected]Email us about the Graduate Aspiration Programme.

If you're in your first year of undergraduate study, try our Ask a Mentor Service or group mentoring.

While exact dates will vary each year, here's how it works:

• We'll open an application form typically in the summer or autumn of each year, with a November deadline
• On the for,m we'll ask you to pick from a list of professions you're interested in, ranking your first, second and third choices
• You'll be notified about your match in December and expected to organise your first meeting with your mentor for January
• You'll have six one-hour mentoring sessions via a digital platform between January and April
• At the end of the programme, you'll get a certificate for participating

GAP mentors work in many professions within the Civil Service including:

• administration
• analysis
• audit
• business management
• data
• climate
• compliance
• commercial
• communications
• cyber
• digital
• economics
• engineering
• finance
• fraud and counter fraud
• HR
• international trade
• legal
• national security
• operational delivery
• policy
• project delivery
• property
• risk
• science
• security
• social research
• tax
• veterinarian

As with all our pathways, mentors are professionals who are volunteering their time to help you realise your career goals. It's therefore important that you fulfil your part of this relationship by:

• investing your time to engage with the mentor and take the lead in organising six sessions between January and April
• actively participating in the programme, being open to advice and considering development opportunities
• completing feedback forms after the programme, so we can make improvements that will benefit others in the future
• notifying us of any changes, including to your contact details, availability or ability to take part by emailing [email protected]Email us about the Graduate Aspiration Programme