What's involved? 10 facts about Mentor Match

Students:

All students from across the University are welcome to apply, international students too – we have plenty of English-speaking mentors. Mentoring is ideal for students who are not in the very early stages of their university journey. Once you have finished your studies with us you are no longer able to request mentoring – but you can become a mentor.

Mentors:

We welcome mentors from all industries and sectors, at any level and stage of their career. You can be a mentor if you're an alumnus or simply a friend of the University – there's no requirement to have studied with us. You can also be based outside of Örebro, more than half of our mentors come from other parts of Sweden and overseas.

Please note that taking part in Mentor Match is a volunteer activity without reimbursement.

The most popular time for new registrations is during the autumn, but you can register as a student or mentor, find a partner and begin your mentoring at any time of the year.

Provide as much detail about yourself and your background as possible – this will make it easier for others to identify you as a potential match.

When you register you identify any relevant sectors and professions, provide information about your university education (if appropriate) and indicate which languages you’re happy to conduct your mentoring in (Swedish and/or English).

Don’t forget to add a photo – profiles with photographs attract more interest than those without.

Once you’ve joined, you can review other members and reach out to your chosen mentor or student. You send them a mentoring request via the portal.

If they accept your proposal, then that’s it - you can begin your mentoring! Make sure you check the series of ‘how to’ guides in the portal to help you get started in the best way possible.

If they decline then don’t worry – just ask another potential candidate.

Once your application to Mentor Match has been approved, then the best way of ensuring the best match possible is to complete your profile in the portal as fully as possible.

Make sure you have selected all relevant professions and sectors for example, and complete other areas such as employment history and so on. This will help others find your profile and improve your chances of a good match.

Adding a photo to your profile will also improve your chances – profiles without an image generate less interest.

To find your match you can filter other Mentor Match members – for example based on education, sector, profession, language and employer.

By making and changing your selections you can explore potential matches. If you aren’t seeing many matches, then consider loosening some of your criteria.

Once you’ve found a potential match, then can invite them to begin mentoring by sending them a message.

For most participants, this is unlikely to be the case. Approximately 83% of matches last year were rated ‘high’ or ‘very high’ in terms of their fit to participants.

This means the profiles of the student and mentor had helpful similarities and overlaps when it came to their education, industry, profession and interest selections.

Whilst the remaining 17% of matches lacked overlaps or similarities between profiles, the feedback from the people in these matches is that they still enjoyed their mentoring and learnt from it.

This means that if you can’t find an obvious match on your first search we suggest loosening your criteria. Reaching out to someone with slightly different perspectives, insights and experiences is still likely to result in unique, interesting and rewarding mentoring.

Another option will be to wait, and take another look after a few weeks – new students and mentors join across the year your perfect match may appear or be available at another date. However, we can’t guarantee this.

Students can have one mentor at a time.

Mentors can mentor up to two students at a time if they choose to do so.

Bear in mind that mentoring works best when you are fully committed to it – so make sure you don’t take on more than you can manage.

If you’re a student who wants to explore a single, specific question, or you're a mentor with limited time, then you might decide to agree to one meeting.

Alternatively you might agree to a few meetings over a couple of months, and to review the situation at the end.

Or you might want to suggest a fixed 6-month mentoring period – this was the length of our old Mentor Match programme, and it was popular with many, providing time to explore issues but still providing a clear end-date.

It’s entirely up to you – and it’s something you should both agree on when you first make contact. Remember to respect the fact that the person you’re contacting may not have the same availability or mentoring expectations that you do.

Yes. You can meet physically or online.

In fact, as we have lots of mentors across Sweden and overseas it’s no surprise that approximately 60% of mentoring meetings take place via Zoom, Teams or WhatsApp.

Physical meetings often take place in cafes, places of work or campus – always be sure to share your plans with others and minimise any risks for you and your partner when meeting in person.

Meetings tend to last one to two hours. Digital meetings are typically a bit shorter than meetings in person. However, there is no rule – your meeting can be as short or long as you both think is appropriate!

No. As your mentoring might start at any time across the year, there is no collective Kick Off.

Instead we provide a range of guides and other materials that can help you prepare for your mentoring. These are available within the mentoring platform.

Although there is no Kick Off on campus, we do hold two After Works – usually at a pub in central Örebro, and these are a great way of meeting with other participants. They take place in December and April, and provide an informal, friendly networking opportunity for everyone enrolled in the portal, even if they’re not actively mentoring at the time.

You’ll find a selection of short guides and other materials in the mentoring portal.

This includes our mentoring AI ‘Emma’. You can ask Emma for tips, ideas and feedback that can help you prepare and run your mentoring sessions.

If you’re in a ‘traditional’ mentoring experience (over several meetings) then it’s recommended that at the end of each meeting you agree what you’re going to talk about next time. This gives you both the chance to prepare so you’ll be able to make the most of your time together.

There are lots of factors that can contribute to getting the most out of your mentoring. However the most important by far is motivation.

If you and your student/mentor are engaged in the process, and committed to making it work, then our experience is that it will.

Other ways of ensuring you both get the most from the experience will be to:

• Be proactive, kind and curious.
• Keep the communication going during your mentoring – be clear, respond to messages, and respect the effort and commitment of your student/mentor.
• Keep it professional – always bear in mind your goals and responsibilities as student and mentor.
• Be prepared – make sure you put aside some time before each meeting to prepare. Think about the questions you want to ask, how you might expand on the topic and contribute to the conversation.
• When you’re in your meeting, exercise active listening. Don’t just think about your next question or point, listen to what your partner is (or isn’t) saying – be ready to follow the conversation wherever it goes.

No, there’s no financial compensation for taking part in Mentor Match.

Of course taking part can be very rewarding for both mentors and students in terms of developing your personal competencies, expanding your network, sharing your experience and learning from others. Taking part in Mentor Match is an investment in both your own and your partners personal and professional development. And it’s fun too!

We very much appreciate the time and commitment shown by our mentors, as well as the enthusiasm and motivation of our students.

Both students and mentors are eligible for a digital certificate of participation once they've completed the evaluation survey.

Certificates are sent out in June for mentoring undertaken in the previous 12 months.

This is entirely OK. We all find ourselves dealing with busy periods thanks to work or studies.

To avoid being contacted by someone when you’re going through a busy period, you can choose to turn your availability ‘off’ in your portal profile.

And then, once you have more time, you can turn your availability back ‘on’.

Yes. You can continue to participate until you delete your profile from the mentoring portal.

If you've previously participated as a student mentee but have now left university then you are no longer eligible for mentoring. You can choose to delete your profile, or alternatively update your profile and take part as a mentor. 😀

If you’re sent a mentoring request but you can’t participate at that time, then this is entirely OK. Just let them know you’re unavailable so they can approach someone else. To avoid being contacted like this when you're busy, you can choose to turn your availability 'on' and 'off' in your portal profile.

At the end of each season we ask participants from the last 12 months to complete an online evaluation.

This is an opportunity for you to look back and recognise what you achieved together. Even if you encountered challenges or your association did not last for long, be positive in your final analysis and consider areas of accomplishment or progress.

Please note we do not ask you to rate your partner or give feedback on their performance. Rather, we gather general information such as how many times you met, and how, any difficulties you might have overcome with your mentoring, and if you would recommend Mentor Match to others.

We also gather information about how well the tools used to deliver Mentor Match work – such as the mentoring portal and support materials.

For example, our evaluation of the 2024/25 season showed that:

• 92% of participants would recommend Mentor Match to others.
• Our mentors came from 18 different countries and represented 126 different organizations.
• Most pairs met 5-6 times, with each meeting lasting 1-2 hours.
• 58% of meetings were digital, while 42% were in-person.
• 84% of mentors would consider mentoring again.
• 89% of mentors were alumni.
• About 47% of mentors came from outside Örebro County.

Great question! Here are a few of the news articles where we’ve asked Mentor Match participants to tell us what the experience was like for them:

• Ida and Anna
• Kristina and Maria
• Hans and Ramadan.

We will respect the confidentiality of any information you provide to us (Örebro University), and only collect and process information you allow us to by participating in Mentor Match.

This is the information you provide in your application, profile, your use of the mentoring portal and your communications with us. This helps us ensure you get the best value from the support, services and opportunities we can offer, as well as helps us monitor and evaluate our activity. As an existing or past student, or supporter of the University, we may add or update your information within our alumni and friends database so that it is up-to-date, and so that our contact with you in the future with relation to ongoing student, alumni, collaboration and mentorship programmes is correct and relevant.

This means that unless you opt out of communications (which you can do at any time), we’ll occasionally provide you with updates, news and opportunities – by email, post or other channels – relating to alumni, stakeholder, mentorship or other University activity that may prove of interest. This data statement does not replace any other data statements you may have agreed with the University or with the providers of the mentoring portal – be sure to read through their data statement when signing up to the portal.

For a more detailed description of why and how Örebro University safeguards your details, please visit our full privacy policy. The page provides full details of your rights, what you can expect of us and how you can get in touch with us with any questions or requests.