Jump-start your career with mentoring
RADIO PRODUCER Johnny, accountant Emily and advertising manager Collette may be employed in different fields, but they have much in common. They are all former JFS pupils, building successful careers in areas they love; their professional lives received a Jump-start from ORT UK’s school mentoring programme, ORT Jump and they have all returned to ORT UK as mentors for ORT Jump 2019.
For Anna Black, ORT Jump coordinator, it is testament to the success of the scheme that the project is now seeing the return of former participants, keen to help the next generation into employment.
“The ORT Jump mentoring programme is now in its tenth year and demand is high,” says Black. “We know our programme is working when we receive wonderful emails from students whose mentors have helped them grow in confidence, armed them with expert advice and given them the motivation to pursue their chosen career. We’ve seen students receive work experience and even job offers, while mentors happily return year after year.”
ORT Jump is now running in 11 sixth forms, including JFS, JCoSS, Yavneh College, Immanuel College and Hasmonean Boys and
Girls, plus five more schools in Camden and
Emily Rashty Barnet. Students are matched with a mentor in their chosen field.
Johnny Seifert recalls how his future “flashed before him” when ORT Jump arranged for him to be mentored at Jnet Radio. “My life changed,” says Seifert, now the celebrity producer and reporter at TalkRadio. “I was watching my mentor and I thought: ‘I could do this!’ As the sessions progressed, she let me go on air. She helped me see I didn’t just want to be a presenter but a producer too. Returning as a mentor has been a valuable opportunity to process everything I’ve learnt and appreciate the people who helped me. I want my mentee to leave with a full toolbox of skills.”
Emily Rashty, a tax associate at BDO UK LLP, is equally grateful to ORT Jump. “It gave us a really good insight into working life. My mentor was encouraging and he’s a big part of the reason I’m an accountant now.”
Collette Green, client manager at creative agency Founded, hopes to “give something back” and help students navigate through the many options involved in a career in advertising, following her positive experience as an ORT Jump mentee. “My mentor taught me so much about the advertising industry,” says Green. “He even got me interviews for my internships. I couldn’t have asked for more support through the (scary) process of figuring out the real world.”
ORT Jump is looking for mentors for 2019/2020. Contact anna.black@ ortuk.org, call 020 7446 8522 or see ortuk. org/jump. Registered charity 1105254