What is it about?
Low socio-economic status (SES) undergraduate mentees in Higher Education are found to experience higher psychosocial gains from career mentoring by employers and at least comparable career development gains relative to their higher status peers. Their experiences of greater negative affect due to only partial identification with mentors can lead to compromised career aspirations to secure their self-identity, but do not prevent them aspiring to professional roles. Scheme managers need to raise issues of class consciousness in schemes to support social mobility potential and have a duty of care to low-SES mentees on such schemes.
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Why is it important?
Much money is invested in career mentoring schemes by employers for undergraduates in higher education. We need to make sure it is effective for its purpose which is generally about social mobility and helping students secure graduate level jobs.
Perspectives
This article focuses on social background and the benefits of career mentoring to those from different backgrounds. It shows that how we value different job roles can create a system where undergraduates from poorer social backgrounds shy away from those job roles deemed superior because they don't feel suited to them and they can't be themselves in those roles. By continuing to make this the responsibility of individuals to become 'more employable' we are ignoring the social systems that often contribute to causing this issue. What needs to happen is an adjustment of the cultural capital in certain sectors so students from poorer backgrounds can feel at ease in them. This is a challenge we need to take on by offering support to those journeying into these spaces in the first instance.
Tania Lyden
University of Warwick
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Undergraduate career mentoring: social mobility panacea or ethical dilemma?, International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, February 2026, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/ijmce-12-2024-0135.
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