Juno Consulting ran 5 community mentoring programs in 2006 in which corporate mentors worked with long-term unemployed job seekers for 15 weeks.

In total 138 people participated in the programs of which 75 found employment. This is equivalent to a 54% success rate. This is a slightly lower success rate than in previous years, which reflects that the candidates have become more difficult in line with the drop in the national unemployment rate.

We worked with mentors from BP, UCMS, Pacific National, Origin Energy and Bendigo Bank and the participants were mainly referred by The Salvation Army Employment Plus. The Passport to Work model that these programs were based on is described here.

The programs are not only helping long-term unemployed job seekers, but also help the mentors develop their communication and leadership skills. Through working with someone very different from themselves mentors have to stretch themselves emotionally and try out new approaches to communication, coaching and leadership. (more...)