Hot Property @ Brookes: Real Estate Mentoring Scheme: 2017 Launch

The launch of the OBREMS/OBU Real Estate Mentoring Scheme 2017 took place on 22 March at the offices of Cushman & Wakefield in Portman Square, London and brought together mentors and mentees for the first time. The Mentoring Scheme is managed jointly by OBREMS (which, by the way, is our alumni association) and the School of the Built Environment and is open to second year students on the BSc Real Estate Management and the BA Planning and Property Development who do not have an existing network of contacts within the property sector.

Harri John (centre) talking about her experiences of mentoring

Gina Dalton from the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes introduced the Real Estate Mentoring Scheme and then passed over to Harri John, Graduate Surveyor at Cushman & Wakefield (and one of our alumni from the BSc Real Estate Management), who welcomed everyone to the event and to Cushman & Wakefield. Harri also reflected on her time at Oxford Brookes (she graduated in 2016), where she took part in the mentoring scheme in 2015 (she was mentored by Simon Friend)...so she was also able to offer some words of advice to the mentees. And then Gina introduced the following speakers:

Jason Antill, Director at Pure Real Estate Services and the new President of OBREMS, gave a brief presentation on the work of OBREMS and also on his experience as a mentor.

Deborah Joynt who works on the corporate valuation side of the healthcare team at Knight Frank LLP and has been involved with the mentoring scheme from the first year (2013). She talked about her experiences as a mentor, how students could get the most out of the scheme (and their mentor) and how the mentoring relationship works both ways.

Ian Norris talking about what it's like to be a mentor

Ian Norris is Owner/Director of Jones Norris Adams Chartered Surveyors and was persuaded to get involved with the mentoring scheme in 2016. He talked about how he was glad that he was persuaded (to get involved) and his experiences within the real estate sector, including setting up his own company.

Grace Burke giving advice to the new mentees

Grace Burke is a Graduate Surveyor at Levy Real Estate LLP (graduated from BSc Real Estate Management in 2016) and was mentored by Liz Iles. Grace talked about how much she had benefited from the scheme and her approach. Both Grace and Harri are still in touch with their mentors.

One of the unique features of our Real Estate Mentoring Scheme is that all of our mentors are graduates of either the BSc or MSc Real Estate at Oxford Brookes (or Oxford Polytechnic as it used to be) which means that the launch evening is also a great networking event and that mentors and students (or 'mentees') have an immediate connection. The energy and buzz that filled the room at the launch event is reflected in some of the photos...