The NetMentor project is led by APPACDM in Lisbon and Almada in Portugal. They are working in partnership with organisations in Swansea, Wales; Athens, Greece; Pistoia, Italy and Lisbon, Portugal. The project aims to develop an e-mentoring methodology to address the difficulties many disadvantaged people have with improving their personal development as well as with integration into mainstream vocational training and employment. The main focus will be on the value of e-mentoring as an on-going support mechanism for people who are moving out of their current training, placement or institution but have not been able to progress directly into further training or employment. E-mentoring will enable them to maintain contact with their previous placements or support networks, to maintain motivation to continue to actively seek future placements and to continue practicing their skills in order to enhance their chances of finding a suitable and appropriate occupation/job.

There is a high percentage of individuals who are not able to engage in vocational training or job placements and this contributes to their isolation, lack of confidence, self esteem, depression and potentially compromises their ability to be an active, economically self-sufficient citizen.

NetMentor will research the current availability and use of electronic mentoring programmes and their appropriateness for use with disadvantaged groups in assisting with (re)-integration and in maintaining motivation. The project will adapt the “Introduction to Mentoring Skills” course into an electronic programme for mentoring support in different contexts including providing support at a distance with the possibility of communication using data transmission, images and voice.

Mentors will then be trained in e-mentoring methods using the adapted programme. The methodology will then be piloted with the target groups in each partner country to test the value of the programme with a variety of different target groups including people with disabilities, people with learning disabilities, long-term unemployed women and young people serving youth custody sentences in secure institutions.

We aim to demonstrate how an E-Mentoring system of support will be easily transferable to different target groups in different countries in different situations. It will be a) cost-effective in that it will provided a continuous link to the individuals without the need to spend a large amount of time and resources working with them face to face; and b) enable partners to learn more about each others cultures and training systems and for young people to realise that they are not alone and people in other countries are experiencing the same problems and working towards the same solutions.