London Stansted’s student mentoring programme returns to Forest Hall School
London Stansted has once again teamed up with Forest Hall School in Stansted Mountfitchet to launch the seventh year of its successful mentoring scheme to support and inspire students during their GCSE examination year.
In the previous six years since the partnership was introduced as one of the airport’s community education initiatives, nearly 90 year 11 pupils at the school have been matched with staff working in a wide range of roles across the airport to share life and business experiences, and lend the students extra support during their final and most demanding GCSE year.
The fifteen airport staff taking part in the scheme this year will visit the school once every two weeks to meet with the students throughout the school year.
Forest Hall School were delighted to welcome the mentors from Stansted Airport this week for another year of working with our Year 11 cohort. Introductions were made by the mentors and the students outlined post-GCSE and career ambitions in our first session.
Throughout the academic year the mentors will assist our students with exam revision, insight into what life is like working at Stansted Airport and career planning. Our students always benefit from the sessions spent with the mentors and as a school we are grateful for the time and effort invested into them by Stansted Airport staff.
We all remember what it was like at school with exams on the horizon and having to start thinking about the future. Now in its seventh year, this scheme is a great way for pupils to hear from people outside their usual school environment about how best to prepare for life in the workplace, and hopefully pick up some valuable hints and tips ahead of their exams. It’s also great for us as mentors to hear first-hand from the workforce of the future about their hopes and ambitions.
The school mentoring programme runs alongside other London Stansted Airport initiatives to support education and the local community. The Aerozone, the airport’s dedicated education facility for school children aged five and above, has now welcomed more than 16,000 children from the local area since it opened in 2015.
The Stansted Airport College, a ground-breaking partnership with Harlow College and the only Further Education facility in Uttlesford, opened in September 2018 and is now welcoming nearly 500 students studying vocational courses in aviation-related subjects in its second year. The college has recently announced ambitious plans for the future of the facility, including enlarging the existing student capacity to cope with future demand as well as creating the UK’s first aviation education and skills campus at the site.
London Stansted owner MAG has won the coveted National Commitment to Skills and Training prize at the 2019 Better Society Awards for schemes designed to provide local airport communities with opportunities for skills training and employment in the aviation industry, regardless of their age or experience.