Hot Property @ Brookes: The OBREMS/OBU Mentoring Scheme 2018: The Launch

The launch of the 2018 OBREMS/OBU Mentoring Scheme took place on 21 March and was hosted by Cushman & Wakefield at their offices in Portman Square, London. The launch brought together mentors and students (mentees) for the first time at a fantastic networking event. The Mentoring Scheme (now in its sixth year) 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.

This year, applications to the Mentoring Scheme have more than doubled and, thanks to the work of OBREMS in promoting the scheme amongst their members this year, we have been able to allocate a mentor to each student that applied. An exciting development this year has been an increase in the number of younger mentors, some of whom took part in the Mentoring Scheme themselves when they were students.

George Roberts welcoming everyone to Cushman & Wakefield

Dan Sames from the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes introduced the Mentoring Scheme and then passed over to George Roberts, Head of UK and Ireland at Cushman & Wakefield (and one of our alumni from the BSc Real Estate Management), who welcomed everyone to the event and to Cushman & Wakefield. And then Dan introduced the following speakers:

Chris Wilton (Cushman & Wakefield) and John King (CBRE) both took part in the Mentoring Scheme when they were students at Oxford Brookes - they talked about their experiences as students on the Mentoring Scheme (in 2013 and 2014) and gave the new mentees lots of useful tips. Both Chris and John are taking part in the scheme again this year as mentors.

Chris Wilton (left) and John King talking about their time as 'mentees'

Laura Sweet (Mayfair Capital) and Andrew Hynard (Howard de Walden Estate) have been involved with the Mentoring Scheme for a number of years. They talked about their experiences as mentors and the need to adapt to different students and their individual needs...they also spoke about how much enjoyment they got out of taking part in the Mentoring Scheme as mentors.

Laura Sweet and Andrew Hynard giving our new (and old) mentors some advice.

One of the unique features of our Mentoring Scheme is that all of our mentors are graduates of either Real Estate (BSc or MSc) or Planning and Property Development (BA) at Oxford Brookes (or Oxford Polytechnic as it used to be). This means that mentors and students have an immediate connection. Students had the opportunity to chat with a wide range of mentors during the event before meeting up with their mentor for an individual 'first' meeting. The energy and buzz that filled the room at the launch event is reflected in some of the photos...