Being part of another's journey

Affie Jeerh is one of the BBC’s peer mentors with the Media Trust’sQueen’s Young Leaders programme. She works at the BBC Academy in the Entry Level Talent team.

'It’s so important to have an open and honest conversation about what you both expect'

Agreeing to be a mentor has been a very personal journey for me and I hope it inspires others to do the same. Offering employment advice, which could change the circumstances for someone, is a big responsibility which I embrace - knowing I am part of the journey for them to discover and tap into their full potential.

It’s a good fit for my role – I am part of the BBC Academy’s Entry Level Talent team; we are concerned with attracting people interested in BBC apprenticeship and trainee schemes in Journalism and Engineering.

Across all the schemes we’re really looking to bring in budding new talent. We want the BBC to reflect the wide range of audiences that we serve – everything from Radio 1Xtra’s Fire in the Booth to BBC Two’s Newsnight programme - and everything in-between. The way to do that is by having a broad mix of people who can reflect our audience’s different interests and passions.

My first mentoring session, I met my mentee, Letitia (I've changed her name), 19 years old, who has already been through quite a lot in her family and personal life – she completely blew me away with her resilience.

It is so important for us to build a mentoring relationship of trust, respect and judgement. People don’t want pity but someone who can help them unlock their true potential. Really focussing in the sessions helps us to establish what’s important to her and what is obtainable but also understanding it can’t be done overnight.

I believe keeping things relaxed eases the pressure, especially when meeting for the first time. It’s so important to have an open and honest conversation about what you both expect from the mentoring sessions and agree when setting the goals.

For me the objective is to listen and when I mean listen, I mean listen and NOT hear what you think you want to hear, if that makes sense!

After our first session, Letitia didn’t waste any time to apply for a recent opportunity for one of the gold-standard BBC training schemes. We will be meeting up soon and I can’t wait to hear what else she has been up to. I’m excited!

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