Hot Property @ Brookes: The Mentoring Scheme in 2021: the launch on Zoom

The launch of the 2021 OBREMS/OBU Mentoring Scheme took place on 15 April and was hosted on Zoom from various locations around the UK. The launch brought together mentors and students for the first time at a virtual networking event. The Mentoring Scheme (now in its 9th 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 have topped 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!

Dan Sames and Elaine Tooke (top left and top right) from the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes introduced the Mentoring Scheme and then passed over to James Stacey and Harriet Costello from OBREMS. James (Chair of OBREMS) introduced the work of OBREMS and the following video...

Harriet (Public Relations for OBREMS) talked about her experience of the Mentoring Scheme as both a mentor and a student. And then Elaine (compère for the evening) introduced Aidan Mckearney (Chartered Surveyor at The Howard de Walden Estate) and George Homer (Chartered Surveyor - London Markets - Cushman & Wakefield).

Aidan (above left) and George (above right) 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 2017) and subsequently as mentors, offering students and mentors lots of useful advice on how to get the most out of the experience.

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. After the initial introductions, students and mentors were allocated to a series of breakout rooms and had the opportunity to chat and network. I visited most of the breakout rooms and can confirm that the energy and chat was very similar to that seen at the real life events of the past. Just without the drinks...although some people brought there own.