How does mentoring affect students social, academic, and career development?
Some mentoring programs seek to improve career readiness, and others address the students social and academic development. In the case of programs that actively seek to improve career readiness, mentors are usually people who are successfully employed or retired, who can directly discuss career issues and provide guidance to mentees. Mentors may assist mentees in career exploration, educational pursuits, the job search process, and career transitions. Mentors may also provide technical information and assistance with skill development in a particular career field. In other cases, the connection may be less direct, however, as Rhodes, Grossman, and Resch (2000) point out, “By conveying messages regarding the value of school and serving as tangible models of success, mentors may stimulate adolescents improved attitude toward school achievement, perceived academic competence, and school performance, as well as adolescents beliefs about the relationship between educational attainment and f
