Young Mentors

About this resource

A mentoring program that brings together secondary school students and older Australians to share digital skills and knowledge. The program involves a school partnering with a community organisation to coordinate digital mentoring sessions over six weeks.

Level

Middle secondary, Upper secondary

Keywords

Intergenerational learning, Digital resilience

Type of resource

Trainer’s guide and lesson plans, timeline template, promotional flyers and posters, slide pack, mentor revision booklet, facilitators guide and certificates.

Timeframe

Up to 3.5 hours of student training and weekly one-hour mentoring sessions between students and older learners over six weeks.

Key outcomes

The Young Mentors program builds community engagement by providing secondary school students the opportunity to support older members of the community to develop their digital skills.

Your students can participate in the program as part of community work, volunteering, work experience or a leadership program.

Students work as digital mentors, allowing them to develop their teaching, communication and problem-solving skills while making a valuable social contribution.

This program can be used towards the Service section of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

Using this resource

The toolkit contains all the promotional, training and facilitation materials you will need to successfully recruit and guide your students through the program.

Five simple steps for school coordinators

Register your school to access the toolkit of resources.
Find a community partner such as a library, aged care facility or community group that will recruit older participants to pair up with your students. A letter of introduction template and program overview are provided in the toolkit to help you with this step.
Promote the program to your students using the flyers, posters and newsletter articles in the toolkit.
Train students on how to mentor an older person using the step-by-step training guide and slide pack provided.
Coordinate and supervise the mentoring sessions with your program partner.

Students mentor their older learners during supervised one-hour sessions, over a six-week period.

The one-to-one sessions are fun, informal and tailored to cover topics that older people would like to learn.

Older learners use their own devices, so the new skills they learn can be put into practice straight away.

Register

Here's what teachers thought of the program

Kay, All Saints' College

“Students are encouraged to think for themselves…with the program giving them a view of society beyond themselves," says Kay.

Maria, Beverly Hills Girls High School principal

School principal, Maria, sees the program empowering her students while helping the school build relationships in the community.

Michelle, St Mary's Anglican Girls' School

Michelle loves that the program is led by the students themselves. “It gives them an opportunity to teach and learn new skills.”

Helen, Beverly Hills Girls High School

“The program is an example of reciprocal learning… encouraging students to work with people of different backgrounds," says Helen.

Training the students

The Young Mentors toolkit provides a step-by-step training guide and slide pack to deliver training to your students in mentoring an older person.

The training prepares them for the program and covers the benefits of mentoring, the skills required to mentor, different learning styles and safety aspects of the program. It also provides students with resources and handouts to help with their mentoring.

Here's what students thought of the program

Carmen, Beverly Hills Girls High School

“It’s a two-way street. It gives me a sense of reward and satisfaction." Carmen, Beverly Hills Girls High School vice captain.

Student, All Saints' College

Listen to how the program supported this student mentor to help an older learner engage online.

Student, Beverly Hills Girls High School

“I’m very privileged to be part of the program," says this Year 12 student.

Program timelines

The program delivery timeline provides guidance on how long the program will take.

FAQs

If you still have questions, please take a look at our frequently asked questions (FAQs) or contact us.

This program has been developed by eSafety as part of the Be Connected Initiative. Be Connected is an Australian Government initiative developed to increase the confidence, skills and online safety of older Australians.