In the current economic situation many academically trained people risk to end up unemployed.

It's particularly difficult for people to get their first job. Suomen Mentorit was founded to help some of the unemployed university graduates. From 2012 to 2013 the unemployment rate for newly graduated in Helsinki region almost doubled.

The graduates will be acting as mentees. They will get paired up with an experienced business manager that will act as the mentor for up to one year. The mentee should come up with specific targets for him- or herself and act towards reaching them. 

The mentor commits to 6-8 sessions and some e-mail or calls in between them. The purpose is to help the mentee to find the courage, strength and determination to strive towards his goal. In Finnish we call the mentee ”mentoroitava” or ”aktori”. The first word clearly comes from same basis as mentee, however second word is in my view preferable. It puts the burden of action squarely on the mentee. As the old saying goes: ”You can lead a horse to the water, but you can’t make him drink”. Unless the ”aktori” takes action not much useful will come out of the relationship.

On May 7th the mentors met to discuss this mentoring for the next group of menthes. On the 8th the mentee’s met.

This week I had my first meeting with my mentee, a material sciences engineer interested in research, development and design. She has many processes ongoing, however we will look at how to make sure the engagement stays strong.

So, what makes experienced, busy executives sign up as mentors? Generally it’s out of a concern that Finland wastes resources unless we get all fully trained people actively engaged in the working environment. We are also concerned that unless we mobilize all forces the future of doing business in Finland gets bleak and our grandchildren might need to emigrate, like many of our ancestors. 

If this got you interested to sign up as mentor or ”aktori” go to www.teonpaikka.fi to get started. 

If you are not Finnish and you would like to copy this approach to your own country. Get in touch, if we have time we will help on a best effort basis as helping you will help us clarify our own messages.