Online mentoring for 16-18 year-olds

Further education online mentoring

We work with the leading online mentoring charity, Brightside, to provide online mentoring for around 40 students who are considering journalism as career.

The scheme lasts for 12 weeks and takes place in the spring term. The students are at sixth form colleges and schools in Cardiff, Cornwall, Nottingham and Sheffield, areas which have been identified as places that are being left behind economically and hollowed out socially. Our mentors for the teenagers include mentees from our face to face mentoring scheme.

E-mentoring photo of sixth formers during university visit

The John Schofield Trust has made its mission to tackle social mobility in UK newsrooms and to improve diversity and inclusion so that newsrooms reflect accurately the audiences they serve. To do this effectively, the John Schofield Trust believes we need to identify journalistic talent at an early age.

Brightside is the UK’s biggest online mentoring organisation. It supports 10,000 young people every year from disadvantaged backgrounds and connects them with mentors from a wide range of industries and universities that they might otherwise never encounter.

Together with Brightside, the John Schofield Trust nurtures and inspires the skills and ambitions of the young people we work with and provides practical advice and support to help them fulfil their potential.

If you are interested in becoming an e-mentor, please contact the Trust using this contact form.
If you will be a Year 12 or 13 student in September 2021 and are interested in having an e-mentor, please contact the Trust using this contact form.
If you are a teacher and would like to find out more about our e-mentoring scheme, please contact the Trust using this contact form .

John Schofield was ‘the kind of man who gives journalism a good name’

Robin Lustig, former BBC Presenter

John ‘was a brilliant journalist and a delightful man… He had the intelligence, integrity and courage to get to the top of his profession and it is a tragedy that such a brilliant career should come to such a shockingly premature end’

Richard Tait, former Editor-in-Chief, ITN

‘John’s gentle manners, ever-ready smile and openness were always a great boost to the spirit even on the most mundane of news days’

Zeinab Badawi, BBC Presenter

‘The John Schofield Trust…is an amazing organisation, and I think especially in these difficult, challenging times for the media industry, it’s really important to support young journalists’

Ben Brown, BBC Presenter

‘Every young journalist needs support. They need guidance. They need to fight. And that’s exactly what the Trust does’

Ronke Philipps, ITV News Correspondent

‘It’s really exciting to to witness first hand this next generation of journalists that will help shape the media landscape, hopefully make the industry better and build faith and trust in it’

Cordelia Lynch, Sky News Correspondent

‘Simply put – it enabled me to pursue my dream career, which without the support of my mentor and the John Schofield Trust, would not have been possible’

Mentee 2018

‘It is just a brilliant, practical and productive scheme – which in a cross generational way improves journalism for everyone’

Mentor 2018-19

‘Many thanks for having me at Mohamed’s talk … It was very helpful, well-structured and fitted a lot in to just under 60 mins. Really appreciate being able to join… it was fascinating to hear how Mohamed has done … foreign producing, especially when it comes to maintaining high standards, good communication and upholding strong ethics’

Laura Gaynor, Freelance producer

‘I’ve really enjoyed the whole mentoring experience! It’s been very useful to be able to hone my writing to a more concise and professional tone. I think the biggest take-away from this has been the confidence to share what I write’

E-mentee 2018-19

‘I want to be in a position where it’s not rare to have loads of different people from different backgrounds and not just racial backgrounds, but also class backgrounds and everything like that’

Ayshah Tull, former mentee and C4 News Reporter

But when I was out there actually looking for work, particularly in light of my disability, I couldn’t get started. It was the Trust that helped me get my foot in the door and help get me seen and recognised by the relevant people. To this day, when I mention my involvement with the scheme to people their eyes light up’

Max Preston, former mentee and Sky News producer

‘There is group think and I’ve succumbed to it plenty of times, despite the fact I went to a comp’

Lewis Goodall, former mentee and Policy Editor, BBC Newsnight

‘Being properly representative of modern Britain both on and off-air is essential to earning audience trust in our news output. Audiences need to hear and see themselves reflected back in the mirror we hold up to them’

Carla-Maria Lawson, Head of BBC Daytime and Early Peak

‘If I heard a Scottish voice on the news, especially if it wasn’t a particularly posh Scottish voice on the news, it gave me hope as a state educated Scot in Glasgow, that that’s something that I could do. There could be a future for me in that industry’

Peter Smith, former mentee and Scotland Correspondent, ITV News

‘It’s been reassuring to know that I could go into journalism with any degree and that having a passion for it is the main thing… It’s also been great to talk to someone from such a diverse background, it makes me realise that your differences are what makes you stand out and that can be an advantage in lots of situations’

E-mentee 2018-19

‘What the Trust does is it makes people feel that wherever you are and wherever you’re from that career in the media is well within your reach, and that you deserve it’

Minnie Stephenson, C4 News Reporter

‘As a mentor you offer listening, confidentiality, your interest and your thoughts. You’re not a friend or a teacher, simply someone who’s been in a similar place yourself and made it through’

Andrew Wilson, TV Correspondent