Become a mentor

Mentoring is not only a great way for students to discover their future career. It is also a rewarding experience for mentors. The discussions with a student can challenge you, make you question your views, and give you a new perspective to your own work. In the joint meetings or online meetings with all mentors and mentees, it is possible for you to get to know people from different fields of work and find out what is going on at the university. If you are interested in mentoring an international student, you have the chance to get to know another culture and tell more about Finnish working life or special characteristics of an international career.

Mentoring helped me to see the working life from a new perspective and to present things in simpler forms." -Mentor's feedback

You can sign up as a mentor, if

• you hold a Higher Education degree. You don’t have to be a University of Oulu alumn
• you have at least around five years of working experience
• you work in a small, medium or alrge company, the public or private sector, or even as an entrepreneur. All experience is worth sharing! Even if your career path feels atypical or complicated, that could be the thing that makes you the perfect mentor for someone.
• you have a genuine will and eagerness to guide a student in their transition to work life and openly share your experience
• you can commit to the programme and meetings for at least half a year
• you have time to see your mentee about once a month (face-to-face or online), but at least three times during the mentoring programme.

We wish to have more mentors from the following fields

• natural sciences; especially biology, geography, chemistry and physics
• human sciences
• educational sciences; especially educational psychology and International Master's Programmes
• business studies; especially in Finance and Financial and Management Accounting
• health sciences and biomedical engineering, molecular medicine and biochemistry
• engineering; especially environmental and process engineering, computer engineering and architecture

Mentors come as they are and share their expertise and experience with the mentee during one-on-one meetings. The mentor represents one possible career path to their mentee. The mentor listens, questions, challenges, and gives feedback. Mentors are not there to supervise theses or offer internship or job positions. Mentors don’t primarily represent the company they work for, but represent themselves and their individual career paths.

The student is the more active party in the Mentoring Programme and will make sure that the mentoring process progresses. The mentor can comment on the plan and agenda and suggest what could be included in, or propose a different approach to a certain subject area. It is good to ask from time to time, if your mentee feels they are moving closer to the goals set for the mentoring.

Mentoring requires motivation and time from both the mentor and the mentee. The mentoring pairs are committed to have at least three one-on-one meetings or online meetings during the Mentoring Programme. You can meet your mentee for example for coffee, lunch or sports, or online connection. There will be three joint meetings for all the mentors and mentees where we everyone to attend if possible. In these meetings you will get support for mentoring and meet people from different fields.

Welcome!

Yearly the application period runs from September to October. The schedule for the mentoring programme 2022-2023 is published. Please check the application period and other details in the schedule. 

Please fill the application carefully so we can find the most suitable mentee for you. In the application there are questions about your studies, work place and core skills. The application link is now open.

Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee a student mentee for every mentor. The number of students, their aspirations and backgrounds who enroll in the programme each year vary, and it may not be possible to find a suitable mentee for all mentors.

After the application period

Final selections to the programme will be announced to all applicants in November.  Check out the programme schedule.

Orientation

The selected mentors will be informed before the one-to-one meetings start. It is essential that you take part in the orientation so you get an idea of your responsibilities in the process, and have a flying start to your mentoring process. The orientation will be held prior to the kick-off-meeting where you will meet your mentee for the first time. Check out the programme schedule.

Programme coordinators master's students mentoring programme:

Riitta Arffman
Alumni Coordinator

Angela Suorsa
Salla Herrala
Career Specialists

E-mails follow the format: firstname.lastname(at)oulu.fi

University of Oulu Graduate School:

uniogs(at)oulu.fi