Mentoring - Hatua Network

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MENTOR A STUDENT

Help foster key mindsets and soft skills to support
students' future success.

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The Problem

In today's 21st century economy, academic education alone is not enough to empower youth with the skills they need to succeed. The World Economic Forum lists problem-solving, persistence, collaboration and curiosity as essential skills to thrive in the workplace. Yet most school’s, particularly in low-income countries, are not teaching these career critical soft skills. As a result, 30% of Kenyan employers cite an inadequately skilled workforce as a major barrier to growth.

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Our Solution

Hatua supplements students’ secondary and tertiary education with 10 years of mentoring focused on cultivating the soft skills they need to succeed in the workforce.

Hatua’s mentoring programs focus on building the following key mindsets and soft skills through activity-based learning:

• Emotional intelligence
• Responsibility
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Problem solving

We introduce these career critical competencies during our secondary mentoring program by bringing our students together in small groups for 35 days of in-person mentoring each year. These interactive sessions focus on helping our students cultivate the habits, character, and values that will enable them to navigate their adolescence, as they build foundational skills to support their future success. Since sessions take place during school holidays our mentoring does not compete with students’ academic education and instead keeps students engaged when they might otherwise be idle.

After completing secondary school we train our students to serve as peer mentors. During their Gap Year, between secondary and tertiary education, our students facilitate life skills peer mentoring sessions in primary and secondary schools throughout their communities, reaching over 5,000 children and youth each year with information that helps them to make healthy decisions. Meanwhile, by transitioning from students in high school to facilitators in the front of the classroom, our students practice and strengthen their communication, teamwork, leadership, and productivity skills.

Once our students join college or university, we pair each with a volunteer professional working in the same career field our student wants to pursue when they graduate. These volunteers serve as one on one career coaches, providing industry-specific career advice, introductions to relevant professional networks, and guidance as our students apply for attachment and internship opportunities. As a result, our students graduate from tertiary education with the networks and relevant experience they need to successfully transition from school to work.

Learn more about
becoming a Mentor:

Become a Mentor