YOUNGSTERS across York and North Yorkshire who are taking part in a scheme which teams them up with adult advisors say that it's just the business.

NYBEP, the business and education partnership for York and North Yorkshire, runs a business partnership mentoring scheme with schools aimed at providing one-to-one support and encouragement to students who may be experiencing difficulties or challenges in their school or personal lives. The programme is mainly aimed at secondary school students, but there are no hard and fast rules and a number of primaries also take part.

One of the pupils involved in the mentoring scheme at Fulford School, 16-year-old Fiona Mozley, said talking to her mentor helped her achieve her three A*s and eight As at GCSE. Her mentor is businesswoman Annie Medcalf, who runs York-based management development and coaching company The Fusion Firm.

Fiona, who is now studying for her A-levels in the school's sixth form, said: "I had been someone expected to get high GCSE results and I was not doing as well as anticipated, so my head of year, Mr Bodey, picked up on this and nominated me for the scheme.

"It really helped just talking to Annie, and she helped me with my organisation, which isn't one of my strong points."

Dr Medcalf said: "NYBEP were looking for role models for girls, and I have done a lot of different things in my life and wanted to do something where I could get involved on a voluntary basis."

Mentors are recruited from local businesses, the community, further education colleges and universities.

NYBEP is responsible for recruiting the mentors, carrying out the necessary checks, running induction sessions, giving ongoing support and evaluating the effectiveness of the programme.

The main aims of the scheme are:

To re-engage students who have lost interest in learning and need encouragement to see the relevance of their education

To encourage students to talk about matters of concern to them

To give students contact with positive role models and positive influences

To help students broaden their horizons and raise their aspirations.

To help students with low self esteem and lack of self-confidence

To give support to students who have ambitions in "non-traditional" areas or if they are gifted and talented.

Schools wanting to sign up to the mentoring scheme can phone Susan Balf at NYBEP on 01904 693632, or email susan@nybep.org.uk

Updated: 08:30 Wednesday, December 08, 2004