Mentoring | Industry and LSFM, Lincoln School of Film & Media

LSFM Mentoring is a unique way to link industry with selected undergraduates. Thanks very much to volunteer mentors from the world of work who make time to support our final year or level 2 students in an academic year.  Each mentor brings their experience of the job market to help our students, during their course, as they plan goals and pursue passions for a career. In the past our mentors and mentees have explored everything from work opportunities to discussing dissertations. Pairs are in contact at least 6 times across semesters, so may be around 6-12 hours during the academic year. Contact time is flexible and pairs choose how to meet: face-to-face, talking on the phone, having a web chat or using other online platforms.

Mentors are offered an induction to mentoring, written guidelines and thereafter student-mentee liaises with mentor. Interested in being a media mentor? Then read the introduction and you can download the form to register your interest anytime: LSFM Mentoring_Introduction  |  LSFM_MENTOR_Registration-Form

Our industry mentors are freelancers to company directors and work across the media sector in animation; audio; communications; design; digital marketing; filmmaking; photography; radio; social media; teaching; technology; and TV.

LSFM Mentoring is a partnership between the University of Lincoln School of Film & Media and Careers & Employability (C&E). Our approach aims for a light-touch: we link a mentor and student-mentee together, provide an induction, give a mentoring handbook for guidance and request on line feedback at the end of the year (as we develop our mentoring that started as a pilot in 2014, so it is work in progress).  We have a mentors’ database for interested professionals to register, then at the start of each academic year we’ll get in touch to check availability and update details.

There is a call-out for our students to apply in the second semester. Then undergraduates who’re shortlisted are paired with an available mentor on our database in the new academic year. Successful student-mentees must attend a 1-hour briefing session on-campus and will receive a mentoring handbook for students. Also career advice is available to our students from the C&E team and employability support after graduation.

Please note: Our mentoring is not a matching service! The process is that we do our best to pair like-minded media people together from the data we’ve received. Some mentors are our alumni so they can empathise with many undergraduate issues.