Residential Mentor Review

NCS the challenge is an incredible charity for young people to become more confident and independent. I loved the concept itself it was just sometimes the job itself could be a bit tedious and there was sometimes poor communication. Working with the young people was such a rewarding aspect of the job as it allowed you to see them all grow as individuals

I felt extremely valued by my fellow residential mentors but not so much by other seasonal staff. This was probably because they were not exactly aware of what our role actually was. They had formed their relationships in the previous weeks when us residential mentors are not there and so interacting with those was sometimes difficult. I also felt that sometimes we were the ones who took the blame a lot of the time as it was easy to blame us.

The support I received from my line managers was incredible whenever I had an issue they were there on the other end of the phone to help me out straight away. They always have clear guidance as to what was expected from me and what jobs were needing to be done.

The job consisted of working in waves and this as a 5 day period. The first day, kick off day was always busy as you had the previous waves leaving as well as incoming waves, you had to take in food orders and sort out keys for accommodation so you were never stuck for something to do. The other days however were very different, some days you could have absolutely nothing to do others may be jam packed, it all depended on how your wave of young people were and if they needed extra guidance

As residential mentors you are given a lot of responsibility, if a young person required anything from more food to maintenance with their room they would be sent to you. If other seasonal staff needed help they would quite often come to you as well. People higher up would also send staff to you should they need any help

I improved my organisational skills dramatically as it was not possible to be successful in this role without being organised. I also improved my interpersonal skills, leadership and communication. All of which are extremely useful in every part of life thus will be very beneficial for me in the future

My office was a flat that I shared with other residential mentors for the wave of 5 days and so it was fun. There would always be someone there to help you should you need it in both work and personal senses. When not in the flat there were also plenty of their staff members around that made the job more enjoyable, you were rarely left on your own

Overall the organisation in the company generally could be improved. There were issues with communicating with workers higher up who had not organised for certain pieces of information to be sent to the residential mentors and so this made the job a bit more difficult. However the organisation between the residential mentors themselves was great as we were all on the Same wavelength

I don't feel as though I was personally invested in too much but rather as whole group we were all developed together. We had one on one meetings once throughout the summer but several team meetings. These team meetings allowed us to understand what was expected and how we could develop each other to become better at the role

I would definitely work with NCS the challenge again however I would do another role, one that involved more pastoral care with the young people. Having spoken to my manager they have recommended me for one of those roles and so they do make it easy for you to carry on working with the company

It was great working here as it is such a social role, you are always working with new people and making new friends. On our last day we all went out together and had bbq that evening. We all also hope to keep in contact with one another in the future

Well for this role you are provided with your accommodation for the duration of your role and your meals are provided so it is all entirely free. You also got afternoons off so it was possible to be social during these hours. You also had plenty of oppurtunity to socialise in the role as you are always working with lots of new people.

We did not get a chance to experience this however from working with people who are from the area that this role was in I have heard that the nightlife is good and is actually reasonably priced. It was recommended to me by quite a few people who worked at the company

If you made the opportunities yourself then yes there were some. It would be up to you to organise these with the other staff members. This was easy as you became so close to everyone that everyone was keen to meet up outside of working hours just like normal friends would. I would recommend the company however tried to organise some things like this to make it more organised so more people could get involved