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Become a career mentor
Help kick start young people's careers.
What is headspace career mentoring?
headspace Career Mentoring is a program where young people, aged 18 to 25, are matched with mentors (professionals with at least a few years of experience), for up to six months, based on their areas of interest and experience.
Our mentoring program is designed to help young people develop knowledge and confidence by guiding them through job seeking and applications, interview skills, employer expectations and career progression. It’s an opportunity for people in your organisation to share their professional experiences and career insights, advance their leadership skills, grow their knowledge of youth mental health and make a real difference to the life of a young person.
- Work 1-on-1 with a young person for up to 6-months (option to continue and meet another mentee),
- Regular online meetings (generally every fortnight) at a time that suits you and your mentee,
- A dedicated online platform (Mentorloop), with supporting resources,
- Ongoing training and support for mentors to help build mental health literacy and mentoring skills.
Want to know more about the matching process and what’s expected? Check out our FAQs below or download the headspace Career Mentoring Brochure.
Is your organisation full of potential mentors? Become a Program Partner.
We're looking for value-aligned organisations to work with us to provide the best mentor experience for young people. Give your colleagues the opportunity to participate in a meaningful volunteer experience, create real impact, develop their mentoring skills, and build your organisational capacity and culture.
As a Program partner, you'll get access to exclusive opportunities including:
Mock Interviews
Approximately every 6 weeks, we hold Mock Inverview days to give young people, who are part of our Work and Study programs, an opportunity to practice for job interviews. We invite employees from our Program Partners to be on the Interview panels. It is a one-off, half a day commitment. Ideal for employees who aren't sure if they can commit to regular catch ups with a mentee right now but still keen to get involved.
Training at a time that suits your organisation
If your team can't make it to one of our pre-scheduled sessions, we'll work with you to facilitate training just for your team.
And the bonus is, there's no cost to become a Program Partner.
To learn more about becoming a Program Partner, express your interest and someone from the team will be in contact.
Express interest to be a headspace Career Mentoring Program Partner
What’s the impact of career mentoring?
One in four young people that access headspace services for mental health support, are disconnected from work or study. We know that engaging in work or study can have a positive impact on mental health as they provide connection, routine, and optimism for the future.
Interested in learning more about the connection between work and study and mental health? Check out our article on the mental health benefits of work and study.
Through becoming a headspace mentor, you can play an important role in supporting the career outcomes for young people, and positively impacting their mental health. Help a young person foster important life skills like communication, problem-solving and decision making by sharing career insights, knowledge and industry skills.
Here are some benefits young people have experienced through the headspace career mentoring program:
- 96% of mentees felt more confident about their work future than before they participated in the program,
- 88% of mentees have a better understanding of potential career pathways,
- 92% felt more optimistic about their work future than before they participated in the program,
- 6 out of 10 mentees who were unemployed at the start of the program, gained employment while participating in the program.
And it's not just the mentees that benefit. Our mentors get just as much out of it:
- 100% of mentors gained new skills and knowledge,
- 81% of mentors apply the new skills and knowledge in their day-to-day work,
- 98% of mentors increased their professional satisfaction.
Who can become a headspace career mentor?
Professionals across a range of fields and industries, with at least a few years of strong experience in their chosen field. Based anywhere in Australia. There is no specific level of education needed, we’re more interested in passion and motivation. Are there people in your organisation that have the qualities below?
Qualities we look for in mentors:
- Leadership and strong communication skills
- Positive, supportive and open-minded
- A willingness to share successes, failures and learnings with a mentee
- Interested in helping young people with their careers and learning about youth mental health.
Requirements:
- Must have the right to live and work in Australia
- A Working with Children Check (or state/territory equivalent) and police check is required
- Available to commit to up to 6-months for regular catch ups with a mentee, and additional training sessions.
More information
Discover more ways your organisation can get involved
Are you a young person? Find out more about becoming a mentee
Frequently Asked Questions
There is a bit of a process to becoming a headspace Career Mentor, as we need to ensure that we are providing a safe and supportive environment to all participants.
- You need to submit your application through Mentorloop, which includes two professional references
- You will complete a 30-minute video interview with the headspace team
- We will contact your references via email
- You will provide a volunteer Working with Children Check and Police Check. We will provide you with instructions and support.
Once that’s done, we will invite you to our live training. Then, you’ll be matched with your mentee.
The whole program is approximately 20 hours commitment during a 6 month period; this includes:
- Approximately 8 hours of training (both live online sessions and pre-recorded)
- Generally, one hour per fortnight for up to 6 months (12 hours in total) for mentoring sessions. The amount of time and the regularity of these sessions is dependent on the young person's goals.
Mentors are encouraged to continue participation in the program and be re-matched with further mentees. This is, however, not a requirement.
Your mentee (18-25) will be currently engaged in employment or study, or actively seeking these opportunities.
Your mentee is expected to be accountable and proactive in communicating and arranging mentoring sessions with you and communicating when these need to change.
Mentors and mentees are matched using the Mentorloop system, which takes skills, experience, interests, and a young person’s career goals into account. The headspace Career Mentoring team personally review each match to ensure it’s a good fit.
The more information that you can share with us throughout the recruitment process, the better as this will allow us to match you appropriately with a young person, maximising the chance of success of your mentoring relationship.
We will contact you via email when a young person has accepted the match and arrange your first online mentoring session.
You will meet with your mentee on a fortnightly basis, via the Mentorloop and Zoom platforms, at a time that works for you both. If your mentee would like us to join the first session to support the introductions, we will let you know.
Please note that phone contact and face-to-face meetings are not allowed or endorsed.
Yes! All mentors must pass the credentialling checks before engaging in our training. This includes 1 full day of live training, focused on mentoring and mental health literacy skills.
The total training commitment (including some pre-work) is approx. 8 hours.
Topics covered:
- Roles and responsibilities of a headspace mentor
- Service logistics, policies and procedures
- Youth mentoring theory and practical skills
- Youth mental health
- Adolescent development
- How to have supportive conversations with your mentee.
Mentors are required to attend a full day training session, prior to being introduced to their mentee.
We run four blocks of training per year. The training consists of mentoring and supportive conversations skills, facilitated by the headspace clinical team. The session takes place online.
Training Dates for 2024/2025
- Thursday 31st October 2024 (9.30 – 4.30pm AEDT)
- Friday 14th February 2025 (9.30 – 4.30pm AEDT)
- Friday 9th May 2025 (9.30 – 4.30pm AEDT)
Once you've been accepted as a mentor, you will sign up for one of the upcoming training blocks and receive the links to access the training sessions.
Our career mentoring team is available for support throughout your mentoring relationship.
You’ll also have access to:
- A centralised hub, which includes session guides and key resources.
- Training material on mental health literacy, supportive conversations, and mentoring approaches
- Regular check-ins with the career mentoring team and updates throughout the mentoring relationship
- Access to forums for mentors to connect and share learnings
We use a system called Mentorloop to connect you with a mentee. Your video calls take place via Zoom, which is integrated with Mentorloop. You will need to use your personal or organization zoom accounts to facilitate your sessions and integrate this with the Mentorloop platform. We will provide you with support and instructions for this.
Have a question that's not answered above?
Contact our Career Mentoring team on mentoring@headspace.org.au