Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Expands Mentoring

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Expands Mentoring

I suspect that workers once thought they could not or were told to never redesign the Spirit of Ecstasy, let alone produce an EV.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in a release from Goodwood today said it is expanding its participation in mentoring through Dare to Dream. The program or programme or scheme in Brit-speak, is “designed to help pupils realize their potential and overcome their personal barriers to success.”

Between now and the end of the current school year, 15 volunteers from Rolls-Royce will act as mentors to Year 9 pupils from Chichester Free School, Bourne Community College and Ormiston Six Villages Academy, all close to the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood. The team, which has grown from ten mentors last year, includes some who took part in 2021 and asked to remain involved. The program is run by LoveLocalJobs Foundation, a community interest company (CIC) that works with schools and leading employers in West Sussex.

“We’ve been working with Dare to Dream since its inception and are delighted to support the project again in 2022. We have more mentors than ever before, including some who took part last year and specifically asked to remain involved,” said Mark Adams, Director of Human Resources, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars*, which is owned by BMW.

Each mentor will work with three pupils, all of whom are facing “challenges affecting their personal lives, academic progress, and future career choices. Over the course of three sessions, the mentors will share their experiences and thoughts, understand the pupil’s outlook on life, and explore and challenge what they may believe (or have been told) about themselves and the world,” Rolls said.

“Helping the pupils to think beyond the bounds of school and home can spark aspirational ideas and the motivation to accept the challenges that lie ahead. By sharing their own journeys, which have not always followed conventional educational and employment paths, the mentors demonstrate that no doors are closed, and opportunities come with the desire to pursue things they enjoy and are interested in, however bold,” Rolls said.

Dare to Dream “supports pupils at what can be a daunting time, when they are working towards their GCSEs and feel under pressure to start formulating education and career plans. Mentors provide much-needed support at this crucial stage: it can be especially helpful for pupils to realize that adults already in the working world also face challenges and sometimes have their own doubts and uncertainties to deal with.”

“Previous mentors report seeing a noticeable growth in pupils’ confidence from one session to the next. As well as encouraging pupils to take ownership of pursuing their dreams, the mentors offer practical coaching, helping them consider what skills they might need and ways they could go about gaining them,” Rolls said.

Ben Carter, Head of Year 9 at Chichester Free School, works closely with students involved in the program. He said, “The core aim is to enhance both the mental health and life opportunities of children and young people through self-belief, self-awareness, and confidence.”

*Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BMW Group and is a separate company from Rolls-Royce plc, the manufacturer of aircraft engines and propulsion systems. More than 2000 people are employed at the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars head office and manufacturing plant in Goodwood, West Sussex, the only place in the world where the company’s cars are hand-built.

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