Hot Property @ Brookes: The Launch of the 2019 OBREMS/OBU Mentoring Scheme

The launch of the 2019 OBREMS/OBU Mentoring Scheme took place on 21 March and was hosted by CBRE at their offices in Henrietta House, London. The launch brought together mentors and students (mentees) for the first time at a fantastic networking event. The Mentoring Scheme (now in its 7th year) is managed jointly by OBREMS (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 as well as students on the MSc Real Estate.

This year, applications to the Mentoring Scheme reached 100 and thanks to the work of OBREMS in promoting the scheme amongst their members, we have been able to allocate a mentor to each student that applied. Once again this year we have seen an increase in the number of younger mentors, some of whom took part in the Mentoring Scheme themselves when they were students which is great news!

David Tudor and the Talent and Learning Team at CBRE

Dan Sames and Rebecca Gee from the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes introduced the Mentoring Scheme and then passed over to David Tudor, Senior Director at CBRE who welcomed everyone to the event. Sigrid Ferguson and Charlie Wesson from the CBRE Talent and Learning Team presented a short session on the importance and effectiveness of mentoring and then Dan introduced...

Harriet Costello (Senior Surveyor at JLL) and Cameron Johnston (Asset Manager at The Office Group) both took part in the Mentoring Scheme when they were students at Oxford Brookes - they talked about their experiences on the Mentoring Scheme as students (in 2013) and subsequently as mentors, offering students and mentors lots of useful advice on how to get the most out of the experience.

Harriet Costello

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...