We connect young people facing barriers with inspiring mentors

All young people deserve equal opportunities

Our mentors give young people access and insight they can’t get at home or at school. Our mission is to connect more young people with inspiring role models to help them make confident and informed decisions about their future.

EXPERIENCE

We’ve been engaging young people with digital mentoring for almost twenty years

TECHNOLOGY

We use a bespoke, constantly evolving platform that puts safeguarding at its core

REACH

Our platform has provided 150,000 young people so far with a high-quality mentoring experience

QUALITY

We know our mentoring is high quality because of the results of our robust evaluation frameworks

OUTCOMES

Our mentoring has both deep and long lasting impact. Our mentees are 2x more likely to access university than their peers

Mentee stories

Simran’s story

I always wonder whether I’d be thinking or feeling the same about university if there wasn’t a pandemic. I completely lost that in-person interaction and was struggling with the UCAS application because of it. But then, if there hadn’t been the pandemic, I wouldn’t have been able to do the virtual work experience and use the Brightside platform.

Caitlin’s story

My mentor was lovely; we bonded over our pets and that made me feel more connected to her. She made me feel calmer about applying via UCAS and the interviews process. It was so easy to talk to her because she’s not much older than me.

Aliza’s story

Mentoring was so important for me, especially during a lockdown where you only see the people you already know. You get to connect with someone you’d never speak to outside of school and that’s really important because it forces you out of your comfort zone.

Daniel’s story

I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to do after GCSE and I had no idea where to start. I was interested in aviation, zoology and conservation but after that I was lost. I didn’t know if you needed a degree or an apprenticeship and I wasn’t sure which path to choose. Mentoring was a very useful tool to help with this; it gave me a push to start looking at new things.

Tahmina’s story

If I had to describe my mentor in one word, I’d say amazing. She did the same A Levels as me so she also sent me her notes from Chemistry which were amazing; I’m still using them.

Rano’s story

I knew I wanted to be a lawyer but I was concerned about the workload. My mentor was a working lawyer, so not only gave me advice about my UCAS application and interview questions, but also reassured me that you don’t need to overwork yourself to be successful. He told me about his personal experience of finding balance and saying no, and reminded me how important enjoying your free time is.

We turned to Brightside because they’re well known in the mentoring field for their online intervention. With their strong focus on safeguarding and their platform’s content library of study skills, they were exactly what we were looking for.

Education Liaison and Outreach Manager at Middlesex University

I found mentoring to be a positive experience: it made me feel more confident and it was really rewarding. I loved feeling like I was making a difference.

Laura, Mentor

I’d recommend mentoring to anyone: I’ve already got my brother involved. Sharing your knowledge can make a big impact on a person’s life.

Olivia, Mentor

I had a great experience on this project. I thought the Brightside platform was very, very good for an online mentoring experience. I expected it to be a bit dry but it wasn’t; you could access it on the phone or the mac and it was all seamless.

Steve, Mentor

The Brightside team are amazing. Any time we had questions or concerns, they were so supportive.

Deputy Head of Widening Participation at the University of Cambridge

Anyone thinking of mentoring should absolutely go for it; I was worried I wouldn’t have a lot to offer but you always have more to offer than you think. It isn’t about knowing all the answers, it’s about being a sounding board and coming up with a solution together. The impact you can have on someone’s life is huge.

Eleanor, mentor

News and events

Introducing our new website

It’s the moment we’ve been waiting for…it’s launch day for our new website!

3 ways online mentoring can support your outreach work

In our 2021 Impact Report, we shared stories from our partnership with the University of Surrey and how they responded to the COVID-19 pandemic through expanding their digital outreach.…

Brightside @bright_tweets ·

23h

We’re attending the Employability and Skills summit today to hear about the work organisations do to enhance employability and skills

We’re looking forward to meeting like-minded people who believe in the power of social mobility, diversity & inclusion

#SkillsSummit22 @GESkills

Brightside @bright_tweets ·

4 Jul

Our annual impact report, due out next week, shows that students eligible for free school meals did better on average by 6.5 grades across all subjects at GCSE level after Brightside mentoring.

Find out how you can run a mentoring programme with us: https://buff.ly/3u9Trj9

Brightside @bright_tweets ·

4 Jul

Our mentoring programmes not only help young people get into higher education, they help them to stay there.

Our data shows that students from the lowest participation and highest deprivation areas who receive Brightside mentoring are more likely to complete their course.

Contact us

Get in touch for more programme information, to work with us, or discover more about our work.

What we do

Who we are

Who we are

Our impact

Our impact

We connect young people facing barriers with inspiring mentors

We connect young people facing barriers with inspiring mentors

All young people deserve equal opportunities

Our mentors give young people access and insight they can’t get at home or at school. Our mission is to connect more young people with inspiring role models to help them make confident and informed decisions about their future.

EXPERIENCE

TECHNOLOGY

REACH

QUALITY

OUTCOMES

Mentee stories

Simran’s story

Caitlin’s story

Aliza’s story

Daniel’s story

Tahmina’s story

Rano’s story

We turned to Brightside because they’re well known in the mentoring field for their online intervention. With their strong focus on safeguarding and their platform’s content library of study skills, they were exactly what we were looking for.

I found mentoring to be a positive experience: it made me feel more confident and it was really rewarding. I loved feeling like I was making a difference.

I’d recommend mentoring to anyone: I’ve already got my brother involved. Sharing your knowledge can make a big impact on a person’s life.

I had a great experience on this project. I thought the Brightside platform was very, very good for an online mentoring experience. I expected it to be a bit dry but it wasn’t; you could access it on the phone or the mac and it was all seamless.

The Brightside team are amazing. Any time we had questions or concerns, they were so supportive.

News and events

Introducing our new website

3 ways online mentoring can support your outreach work

Contact us

Looking for more?

Our impact

Our people

Current partners

How it works