Student wins national award for progress during mentoring scheme

A University of Northampton student has won a national award for his progress tackling interview skills and giving public presentations.

Moses Munji, a 3rd year Childhood and Early Youth student, received one of the ‘Mentee of the Year’ awards at the National Mentoring Consortium’s (NMC) annual ceremony.

His Mentor Chris Hardwick, Senior Strategic Analyst at Network Rail, also won as a Mentor of the Year prize.

The two focused on how Moses can better prepare for and conduct himself in interviews and for learning the skills and techniques to present a report to employers.

The NMC’s ceremony is held to mark the end of the annual NMC Mentoring programme and to celebrate the success of the programme for both the mentees and the mentors. Their programme helps black and minority ethnic students from disadvantaged backgrounds to compete on a more level playing field for graduate level employment in the workforce.

University of Northampton offers students a variety of opportunities to help prepare increase their employability. Managed by the University’s Changemaker Hub*, this includes volunteering opportunities, work placements, internships and part-time jobs.

The Changemaker Hub was named Overall Winner for Developing Employability in 2017 by career development platform Abintegro.

Of his win Moses, who comes from Towcester, said: “I’m really grateful the University of Northampton supports students through this kind of opportunity. Before taking part in the NMC’s scheme, I found the very thought of giving a presentation or going to interview daunting. But my mentor, Chris enabled me to understand learning and communicating properly.

“It was the simple things I was getting wrong, like maintaining eye contact and using of short sentences whilst giving as much detail as possible.

“This award will be a reminder of the mentorship scheme and the excellence of my mentor. I now feel prepared to face the challenge of any interview or public presentation!”

Chris added: “The most important thing for me was the opportunity to ‘give something back’. Having been a final year University student myself, I could relate with my mentee, Moses, trying to understand the next logical step to pursue career aspirations, whilst being under the pressure of assignments and exams!

“The scheme provided many positive outcomes; I believe that Moses had a clear, actionable direction upon conclusion and it was fantastic for me to see his confidence grow throughout. I’m confident that Moses will have a very successful future career in a role that he clearly feels very passionate about.”

*Changemaker is a University of Northampton-wide initiative which focuses on staff and students finding solutions to environmental or social problems to improve people’s lives, either at home or abroad.