You’ve probably heard of the School of Hard Knocks and the fantastic work it does to promote social inclusion through sport. Beginning as a ratings-smashing TV show back in 2007, the SOHK is now an established charity that has extended its work to challenge unemployment amongst men and women, to support kids at risk of exclusion from school and to run valuable mentoring programmes.

Hard Knocks for Life is the SOHK’s just-launched mentoring programme, which is supported by Lloyds Bank. Jackie Jenks is the senior mentoring manager at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. She said:

"Mentoring has a proven impact on helping to increase confidence and competence, and these attributes will deliver clear benefits to the charity's social inclusion model."

The programme will pair volunteer mentors with people who may be disenfranchised, homeless, have mental health or substance abuse issues, or be experiencing a variety of other problems. Mentors are assigned mentees to help them overcome these significant barriers to employment, get into work and ultimately, lead more rewarding and socially engaged lives.

In order to help volunteers be the best mentors they can be, the SOHK enlisted support from IOEE. Working together, IOEE and the SOHKs created a comprehensive Mentoring Toolkit. This document is designed for new mentors to help them understand and carry out their responsibilities more efficiently. It outlines core mentoring skills like active listening and asking the right questions, demonstrating why, as a mentor, it’s better to pull (by suggesting and giving feedback) than to push (by instructing and telling).

Adam Shaw (The Heart Guy), who arranged the Hard Knocks for Life launch event at Lloyds Bank’s central London offices, said:

“These mentoring programmes are great way to change people’s lives in a really positive way and you get so much from giving as a mentor.”

Sarah Trouten, Chief Executive of the IOEE, who spoke at the event, told us why being involved in the implementation of this exciting new mentoring scheme is so important to SFEDI and the IOEE:

"IOEE are delighted to be able to contribute our knowledge and resources to such a worthwhile programme. The SOHK mentor training programme develops both the skills and confidence of their volunteer mentors which we know is vital in a building a successful and sustainable mentoring programme."

To speak to someone at the IOEE about how we may be able to support the development of an in house mentoring programme call 01325 307336.