FAQs

Got a question? Check out the FAQs below, and if you need more help please contact us.

Being a mentor

  • Despite our name; you don’t need to be in a creative role to be a mentor. We look for mentors in roles all across the creative industry. What’s important is that you have experience, knowledge and network to help support your mentee.

    Mentoring is great for mid-to-senior level employees interested in developing their skills in management, leadership and DE&I. You don’t already need to be a manager to be a mentor, our training gives you all the tools and skills you need.

    Find out more about our mentor community here.

  • If you’re interested in becoming a mentor you can register your interest on our Break the Wall programme page here.

    Our programmes run four times a year, with applications for mentors closing roughly 10 weeks before the start date to give our team enough time to run our mentee outreach and do our matching process.

  • Our mentoring programmes are more than just matching two people together. The programme fees cover all the associated costs for mentor and mentee training, a programme manager to support you over the programme, mentee outreach and event costs. These fees fund our programmes and ensure they are free and accessible for the young creatives we support.

    If you want to mentor but aren’t in charge of your training and development budget, please let us know, and we help you talk to your HR team about our programmes.

  • Our programmes vary in length but generally require an hour a week of commitment. On our 16-week Break the Wall programme, you’ll receive 8 hours of training, split over 4 sessions, and meet your mentee for an hour every fortnight.

    Bespoke programmes can vary slightly, and be built around business needs.

  • Our programme training has a core focus on the state of socioeconomic diversity in the UK, and deals with specific barriers linking to social and cultural capital. We also look for mentors who can help their mentees expand their professional networks and have a range of UK connections to do this with.

    Because of this, we look for UK based mentors, but appreciate that some people may be able to fulfil the above whilst working abroad. Please contact us to see if you’re outside the UK and if mentoring could be right for you.

  • Our programmes are more than matching. They are mentor training programmes. They are designed to train creatives to be better managers and mentors by equipping them with knowledge and tools around coaching, inclusive leadership and developing talent.

    Having come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, our mentees face specific barriers. Our training helps mentors understand these so they can understand the problems we are committed to fixing and recognise the barriers our mentees have encountered so they can support them effectively. 

  • We do reduced rates for freelancers, and for Break the Wall bookings of 6 more places from one organisation over a 12 month period.

    For more information please email us here.

Becoming a mentee

  • Our programmes are completely free for our mentees to sign up to. For in-person events, if you need support with travel expenses, we will try and support you with these wherever possible.

  • You should hear if you’ve been invited to interview for a programme within one week of the application deadline.

    Due to the volume of applications, we can’t respond to everyone that applies.

    If you aren’t placed on a programme, you can be placed on the waiting list for future cohorts or programmes.

  • Due to the popularity of our programmes we prioritise applications from people who haven’t had a mentor with us before. You are welcome to apply for a second programme but we can’t guarantee you will get a spot.

    If you’ve had a mentor before, and need some specific help, please reach out to you Programme Manager or other mentees through the alumni WhatsApp channels to see if you can get help this way too.

  • As a charity, we have strict eligibility criteria for our programmes.

    We support people from 16 up to 27 from lower socioeconomic/working-class backgrounds. When you apply, there will be questions to assess your eligibility.

    If you’re not eligible for our programmes then check out organisations like ERIC or Creative Lives In Progress.

  • You do not need to apply again as long as you let us know that you cannot make the Assessment Centre. We will review your application when we are next recruiting and if we think that there is a suitable match we will invite you to the next Assessment Centre that we run.

  • When you apply you will have the option to select all the programmes you wish to be considered for.

    Each of our programmes has a limited number of spaces and can be very competitive.

    We encourage you to sign up for all programmes that suit your interests to increase your chances of getting a spot.

Everything else

  • Our mentees come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. That means they’ve had less access to money, contacts and cultural know-how to get ahead and make it in the creative industry based on the factors they were born into. 

    We assess all mentees based on three key factors:

    At the age of 14:

    1. What was their primary householder’s occupation?

    2. What type of school did they attend?

    3. Were they eligible for free school meals?

    This data gives us a good understanding of socioeconomic background, as these factors directly link to the opportunities, and barriers, that can determine someone’s success. Whilst we assess this information at the age of 14, we work with mentees aged 16 - 25 who are at varying stages of their careers. Some of our mentees may have gone to university or be in employment, but this doesn’t mean they still won’t face barriers based on their background. 

    You’ll hear us use lower socioeconomic background and class over the programme. We will use lower socioeconomic background or LSEB when talking about our eligibility and impact, and class for more general moments. This is because class has a more nuanced definition and is not an exact science due to the emotional factors involved. 

  • Our programmes are all UK based.

    Our Break the Wall programme is a hybrid programme that has a mixture of in person and online elements.

    For the in person sessions, they will be run in either our offices in London Victoria, or a space in the area local to the programme if it running outside of London.

    Our Bespoke programmes can run across the UK in person, or online, and be based in companies offices.

  • Yes! If you’re interested in being a charity partner, find out more on our page here.

    We are always interested in hearing from new sponsors, partners and organisations looking to support us with donations, services, goods and more.

  • If you’d like to feature us in an article or other media publication, please check out our media enquiry page.