Become a mentor for small businesses
Unlock potential and empower businesses as a mentor in Newcastle University Business School's Captured and Your Enterprise programmes.
Empower leaders and fuel entrepreneurship
The Captured and Your Enterprise programmes aim to foster entrepreneurship and innovation in our region.
Our Mentors make a vital contribution to a vibrant business community. Share your expertise, guide passionate entrepreneurs and make a lasting impact.
Your experience can help owners of small businesses to:
- overcome challenges
- refine strategies
- unlock their full potential
Why get involved?
We look to partner with regionally-based organisations who are passionate about the North East of England. They want to offer their management team innovative and rewarding volunteering and development opportunities.
Mentors on our small business programmes have a great opportunity to develop their management skills. This means they can have a bigger impact within your organisation.
As mentors, your managers will be able to:
- step out of their daily role and help small local businesses
- hone their mentoring skills in real-life situations
- apply their knowledge and experience in new contexts
- reflect on and develop their own managerial practice
Captured also enables managers to understand how small, entrepreneurial businesses think and operate. This means they return to their workplace with new ideas, contacts and skills.
Who can become a mentor?
We look to partner with regionally-based organisations who are passionate about the North East of England. They want to offer their management team innovative and rewarding volunteering and development opportunities.
Mentors can come from any department within the organisation. They should be either:
- middle managers, identified as on track for more senior positions over time; or
- existing senior managers
Mentors will need to be able to commit at least the equivalent of two full days to their mentee business over the course of the programme..
In order to be an effective mentor, they'll need to be:
- good listeners
- open to new experiences
- willing to question, learn and reflect
- aware of what is going on in the wider business world
We also welcome individuals with relevant experience who want to give back to the local small business community on a voluntary basis.
Previous mentors
How do I become a mentor?
To find out more about becoming a small business mentor, please contact our Captured Coordinator, Jo Singh.