Concept

The MBA Mentorship Programme is a volunteer programme in which Vlerick full-time MBAs are offered several opportunities during the academic year to interact with alumni who have opted to act as mentors, sharing their Vlerick experience as well as their business expertise across a wide range of business disciplines, sectors, functions and countries.

What’s in it for you as a Mentor?

If you join this programme you will have the opportunity to:

• Enlarge your personal network, and share ideas and experiences from when you followed the MBA Programme with the mentees and other Vlerick alumni who will act as mentors.
• Learn about the latest management concepts and models that are being taught at Vlerick through interaction with the students.
• Stay in touch with the School and its Alumni Association through philanthropy.

Some mentors' testimonials:

Objectives

The Mentorship Programme has been designed to create an environment in which MBA students can:

• Enlarge their personal network, and share ideas and experiences in the MBA Programme with the alumni and other MBA participants they meet in this programme.
• Network with a variety of alumni who have opted to act as mentors, thus exposing them to opportunities to establish informal personal development relationships with mentors of their choice.
• Practice and hone their networking skills.
• Gain greater understanding of living abroad and doing business in Europe.
• Refine their career expectations through exposure to a wide range of business disciplines, sectors and functions.

Programme

The Mentorship Programme comprises a series of three formal preannounced events, which students and mentors will be expected to attend if they agree to join the Mentorship Programme. The three formal Mentorship Programme events are designed to facilitate networking with the mentors and will be held on the Leuven campus.

• Mentor Speed Dating (Wednesday, 19 October 2011)
• Platform for your Development (Tuesday, 29 November 2011)
• Alumni available for you with their expertise (Monday, 12 March 2012)

Approximately 65 MBA students will join this programme this year. We are looking to recruiting about a minimum of 40 mentors who are living in or around Belgium and can be physically present at the three above mentioned formal events. Additionally we are calling out to the international chapters of the Alumni Association and looking to recruit a minimum of 15 virtual mentors from these chapters, who will act virtual mentors.

This academic year we will again use Linked-In (please click here) as a means to facilitate interaction between mentors and mentees.

What is expected of a Mentor?

When you join the programme you are expected to:

• Be present at all three of the formal events.
• Have a LinkedIn profile. Mentors will be invited to join the Vlerick Alumni LinkedIn group and Mentorship Programme discussion group by e-mail.
• Actively participate at the formal events in the networking activities designed to facilitate interaction between mentors and mentees. Mentors and mentees will be briefed either beforehand or at the formal events about the evening activity.
• Provide mentees with advice/feedback.
• Respond to student requests via e-mail in a timely fashion (we recommend within one weeks time).
• You are expected to be open to the diversity of many - different from our Western - cultures.

Mentors will not be assigned to individual mentees. It is at your discretion to form the type of relationship you desire with all, any or some of the mentees. What has been appreciated by mentees in the past is:

• Planning a dinner or weekend event (e.g. sailing)
• Introducing mentees to other individuals you may know
• Planning a company visit for those students who have expressed interest in your company.

When researching student profiles, you can make use of the Vlerick Alumni database or the LinkedIn Profiles.

Join this Programme

Should you wish to participate in the MBA Mentorship Programme, please express you interest in an e-mail to Romy Briers (romy.briers@vlerick.com) and block the event dates in your agenda.