{"id":792,"date":"2025-09-05T17:17:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democraticeducationnetwork.net\/?page_id=792"},"modified":"2025-09-25T08:54:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T08:54:01","slug":"mentoring-and-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/democraticeducationnetwork.net\/index.php\/experiential-learning\/mentoring\/mentoring-and-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Mentoring and Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Mentoring, internship and employability in the Post-CoVid-19 era<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

The mentoring project with the Democratic Education Network (DEN) has encountered\u00a0difficulties that began following the sudden emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. We have had to maintain student engagement online during an uncertain time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Given the different circumstances, we had to develop a new strategy, based on learning what employers expect today from our students and how higher education can meet their needs. This was particularly important for those students entering the job market. Because of this, at DEN we decided to implement a new way of working with, supporting, and mentoring our students to suit the current conditions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Our staff-student projects, which encompass our online magazine, book collaborations, and community partnerships, have positioned mentoring as the central tenet of the DEN program. This initiative pairs each student with academic, alumni, or community mentors who guide them through a structured educational process. This process includes an induction phase, goal-setting, bi-weekly clinics, and a debrief session at the end of the project. The system provides on-demand video content and case study walkthroughs and students can access live office hours and get immediate feedback through rapid sprints to support their learning. Students monitor their development through a basic skills assessment tool while collecting evidence from their work and references. DEN functions as a mentoring system which teaches students essential employability skills while providing meaningful value to our local partners.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

This has now evolved into a mentoring scheme providing undergraduate and postgraduate students a plan for managing the transition from year 1 to 3, as well as those in the master\u2019s program. The integration of DEN\u2019s projects (online magazine, books, working with communities, and video-recording) into the curriculum provided various tools for mentoring students practically.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mentoring, internship and employability in the Post-CoVid-19 era The mentoring project with the Democratic Education Network (DEN) has encountered\u00a0difficulties that began following the sudden emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. We have had to maintain student engagement online during an uncertain time.\u00a0\u00a0 Given the different circumstances, we had to develop a new strategy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":789,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-792","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/democraticeducationnetwork.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/democraticeducationnetwork.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/democraticeducationnetwork.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democraticeducationnetwork.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democraticeducationnetwork.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/democraticeducationnetwork.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2520,"href":"https:\/\/democraticeducationnetwork.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/792\/revisions\/2520"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democraticeducationnetwork.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/democraticeducationnetwork.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}