While multinational firms around the world have long reaped the benefits of mentoring and coaching, similar programmes are a relatively new fixture in Europe's education system. For disadvantaged children of migrant background, who are disproportionately among those who underperform in the classroom, mentoring programmes provide specific and personalised support on the road to academic success. Mentoring can help improve the cognitive gains, self-esteem, and self-reliance of pupils. And when high-achieving university students of migrant background team up with younger, at-risk high school pupils with immigrant parents, the positive effects can extend far beyond the classroom. 

‘But despite their rapidly rising popularity and benefits, policymakers and educators still see mentoring programmes as bonus or optional supplements rather than necessary components of an educational experience, particularly for at-risk students’, researchers Maurice Crul and Jens Schneider write in a new policy brief.

The brief, published by MPI Europe and the SIRIUS Policy Network on the education of children and youngsters with a migrant background, makes the case that mentoring should become an integral part of the educational support system for disadvantaged children of immigrants. The newly formed European Network for Educational Support Projects (ENESP), which unites grassroots initiatives on mentoring across Europe, is a first step in building such a coalition, the authors note. 

This policy brief addresses the benefits of mentoring and the professionalisation of mentoring organisations, and explores how policymakers can design mentoring and other educational support projects to be an integral part of the educational landscape. It also highlights examples of successful mentoring experiences that focus on cultivating the hidden talents and potential of children of immigrants. 

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