Two opening events that involved student mentors receiving children from the countryside for a creative workshop lead by former students training to become teachers concluded successfully.  

Children from underprivileged villages and small towns can benefit greatly from being shown the various opportunities they might have outside their regular environment and that learning can help them go far in life.  

The opportunity for successful further education must be created for all children across the country to give them better chances to enter the labour market, since it is a combination of education and work that can carry one forward.    

The university students participating in the university mentor programme will start working with a predetermined number of 7th and 8th graders at one of the primary schools involved, and will receive a HUF 35,000 monthly grant plus the following benefits based on productivity:  

• HUF 10,000/month spending money to be spent on organising joint activities and events with their protégés   
• participants of the “Let’s Teach for Hungary” programme can use MÁV trains and Volán buses free of charge with their LTH cards 
• particularly hard-working and dedicated mentors will be given an ad-hoc target bonus for their work for the semester/year. 

One university student will mentor up to four or five primary schoolers and help them successfully finish primary school and continue into high school.   

What does a mentor do?  

• in the autumn term, participate in the mentor block training course, then in the spring semester, provide weekly mentoring to students from around Budapest  
• mentoring is about supporting underprivileged youth with their studies, personal growth and building a vision  

mentors help students study, improve their self-awareness, reach their goals, as well as learn about further education possibilities in neighbouring towns, the high school application system, and ways to get information   

What is mentor training about?   

• The mentor training is complex, and incorporates psychological and pedagogical knowledge both theoretical and practical, as well as local information gathering  
• It is designed to provide mentors with sufficient information about any difficulties resulting from the socio-economic situation of the students, possibilities for their development, the specifics of partner schools, methods for advancing learning and further education, and also includes improvement of self-awareness based on own experiences  

 

Why is it great to be a mentor?  

• You can learn a lot, step outside your comfort zone and gain rare and valuable experience  
• You can provide reachable goals and vision to youth who see the opportunities as unattainable and the goals as a distant mirage  
• You can be part of a community of people really wanting to help each other  
• You will get a monthly payment and credits  
  
  Who can become a mentor?   
  
     
• university students who registered for and completed the preparatory course in the autumn semester and agree to provide mentoring activities in the spring semester   
  
  How can you apply to be a mentor?   
  
     
• Register for the ‘Let’s Teach for Hungary’ course in September  
• Visit the https://tmo.gov.hu/ website, or send an email to tmo@mome.hu for more information