Mentoring and role models
The Coleg y Cymoedd mentoring scheme connects professional role models to learners who can benefit from their expertise and experience. Our mentors will help you develop career-related skills and achieve your goals.
We believe you can learn so much from those who have successfully achieved what you want to. That belief is at the core of our mentoring scheme.
What is a mentor?
A mentor is an experienced person to give you guidance and support. We want you to feel inspired to follow in their footsteps.
You can discuss your career aspirations and personal development with your mentor and get feedback. They’re your very own confidential sounding board.
Together, you’ll put together an action plan to make your goals a reality.
How can I get a mentor?
The first step is to apply.
If you’re successful, you’ll be paired with a mentor. They could be someone:
How can a Coleg y Cymoedd mentor help me?
Your mentor’s role is to help you develop skills you can use in the workplace and in your personal life. They’ll pass on their experiences – and might even help you avoid some mistakes they made along the way.
These are some of the benefits you might get from your mentor:
- Improved confidence
- Better communication style
- Persuading people to see your point of view
- Talking to people you wouldn’t normally talk to
- Learn what it takes to be a leader like your mentor
- Learn how you’ll be expected to behave at work
- Preparing for an interview
- Writing a CV
- Understanding your own potential
- Acknowledging your strengths
- Managing your weaknesses
It’s important to have realistic expectations of your mentor. You can expect them to be reliable and to do what they say they will do. They will also tell you if they cannot help with something.
Your mentor will keep discussions confidential, unless what you say falls under the college’s safeguarding procedures. If that happens, they will inform the college, but they will let you know before they do so.
What your mentor cannot help with
They are not your parents. Your mentor will not lend you money or ask you to text them to say you’ve arrived home. They also won’t pick up McDonald’s for you on the way to your mentoring meeting.
Mentoring scheme ground rules
Here’s what your mentor and the college expect from you:
Meet the mentors
Get to know our inspiring panel of business leaders and industry changemakers. Who will your mentor be?
Jo Lilford
Jo is a brand strategist and writer. She works globally with organisations of all shapes and sizes, helping them stand out through their communications.
Jo is a brand strategist and writer. She works globally with organisations of all shapes and sizes, helping them stand out through their communications. Her big focus is getting businesses to bring their culture and personality to life by ditching boring language.
Her clients include world governments, charities and businesses. Recently she’s developed brands for the world’s first crypto casino, a vegan food producer, an AI firm, Amgueddfa Cymru and National Theatre Wales. Her work means she gets to learn about all sorts of industries and organisations, so it’s an excellent career for a nosy person.
She’s also a guest lecturer in brand at Cardiff Business School and the University of Boston in the USA.
She grew up in a small community in West Wales but lived and worked in France, Italy, Switzerland, Australia and the USA before coming back home to Wales, so she speaks a few languages besides English.
Outside work, she’s mum to two teenagers. All of them can all run considerably faster than she can. In her spare time, she’s writing a TV series set in a Welsh comprehensive school. She’s a firm believer in taking her work seriously, but not herself.
Jo has experience in:
- Managing people
- Marketing and PR
- Creative industries
- Running companies
- Communication
- Sales
- Presentation skills and public speaking
- Interviews
Laura Roberts
Laura Roberts started her career as a science and physics teacher in a Newport secondary school. Since leaving teaching, she has worked in Educational and STEM Outreach. Now based at the University of South Wales, Laura has over 15 years experience of delivering science, technology. engineering and maths (STEM) outreach activities across Wales.
After studying a degree in physics and medical physics at Cardiff University, Laura went on to complete a PGCE in secondary science at Bristol University and taught in a Newport secondary school.
After leaving teaching, Laura joined the Reaching Wider team, First Campus, at the University of Wales, Newport where she delivered educational workshops in schools, aiming to raise pupil aspirations to attend university in the future.
After moving to the University of Glamorgan (which is now called the University of South Wales), Laura lead on several STEM Outreach initiatives with Reaching Wider, covering the whole of Wales. During this time, she also completed a master’s degree in communicating science and passed with a distinction (despite being heavily pregnant while finishing her dissertation).
For the past 12 years (until December 2023), Laura has managed the Southeast Wales hub of Technocamps. This pan-Wales STEM project delivers workshops in schools and a wide programme of training, competitions and educational projects, in Computer Programming, Computer Science and STEM.
She is now the lead STEM Outreach Officer in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science at the University of South Wales, delivering STEM activities to primary and secondary school pupils in Southeast Wales, and developing the university’s STEM Outreach Programme. This work was shortlisted for the Wales STEM Awards 2024.
Laura lives in Cardiff with her partner, two children, cat and tortoise. She enjoys tattoos, music and craft, sings in a local choir and is a proud member and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. She has played roller derby and was a founding member of Newport’s Riot City Ravens team. She can sometimes be found lifting heavy weights in the gym or out enjoying the Welsh countryside.
Laura also has experience in:
- Teacher training and education
- Science festivals
- Event organisation
- Developing your networks
- Developing communication skills
- Developing educational workshops and resources
- Working with a variety of age groups and audiences
- Advising on STEM careers
Daniela Vaccari Mahapatra
Daniela is an Employment Lawyer as well as the Deputy Director of NWSSP Legal and Risk Services, which is the in-house legal service for the NHS in Wales.
Daniela is an employment lawyer from Neath. She studied law at the University of Wales, Swansea before moving to Cardiff for law school.
Daniela has worked in the private sector as well as the public sector.
Daniela taught the Employment Law module on the HRM course at the University of South Wales. She also mentors as part of the Mentor Mums scheme, offering support to those returning to work following maternity leave.
Daniela has two children in high school and two dogs. Daniela enjoys singing with a band, good food and going on holidays.
Daniela has experience in:
- Interview skills
- Presentation and communication skills
- Pathways to legal careers
- Mentoring, supervising and developing colleagues
- Writing skills
- Networking
- Getting the most from social media and building a presence online
- The positive impact of volunteering
Georgie McGarry
Georgie is the project officer for the Physics Mentoring Programme in Cardiff University. She manages the university students and schools that work with this outreach programme, as well as general logistics and events across the year. She has worked for Cardiff University since 2021 and has also studied there. At this point, they are well and truly stuck with her!
Georgie started out doing a physics degree and spending a few years as a secondary science teacher. After teaching, she decided to return to university to complete a master’s in astrophysics in 2019. During this time, she took part in the Physics Mentoring Programme as a student and realised she wanted to work in science outreach. After a year working in the outreach department at Cardiff University, a physics mentoring role opened up and the rest is history. She is passionate about showing young people they are scientists and removing barriers to STEM – especially as a queer, neurodivergent scientist herself.
Outside work Georgie enjoys reading, movies, baking, and gardening. She will never admit that she has too many plants or books (simply because that’s not possible). She also volunteers at the local food bank warehouse and is a school governor in her spare time.
Kathryn Walters
Kathryn is an NHS clinical psychologist in Gwent where she jointly heads a service of psychologists, counsellors and arts therapists working across the lifespan in both mental and physical health.
Kathryn is an NHS clinical psychologist in Gwent where she jointly heads a service of psychologists, counsellors and arts therapists working across the lifespan in both mental and physical health.
Kathryn initially wanted to do law, then medicine, then biochemistry. She had an epiphany that biochemistry wasn’t for her during a sixth form visit to Birmingham University. She wandered into the Psychology department and was captivated. She decided there and then that she wanted to study it at uni. Kathryn is still fascinated by the subject 31 years later and feels privileged to work in a job that brings her into direct contact with so many people trying to make changes in their lives.
Kathryn lives in Cardiff with her husband and between one and three of her three children, depending what’s going on in their lives (two are grown up). She used to run but now settles for circuits, cycling and weightlifting.
Kathryn has experience in:
- presentation and communication skills
- staff management
- writing skills
- interviewing
- training and teaching
Julie Prior
Julie has been in adult education for more than 30 years and is passionate about helping students to achieve their full potential.
Julie is currently the Deputy Head of the Business School at the University of South Wales.
Julie has experience in:
- Personal and professional development (confidence building and helping people realise their potential)
- Business writing skills
- Presentations skills
- IT office skills (spreadsheets, word processing, slides, file management)
- Job applications (application forms, CVs, covering letters, interviews)
- Teaching and training
- Coaching and mentoring
Lynette Thomas
Lynnette currently works in public health in Swansea Bay University Health Board focused on education and skills.
Jo is a brand strategist and writer. She works globally with organisations of all shapes and sizes, helping them stand out through their communications. Her big focus is getting businesses to bring their culture and personality to life by ditching boring language.
Brought up in the Cynon Valley, Lynnette was the first in her family to go to university. Her first degree is in history and French and she has two master’s degrees – one in European public health and the other in business administration (MBA). She has worked across a range of sectors –higher education, local government, NHS, private and social enterprises – in leadership roles in Wales, England and Belgium. This includes public health, education and skills, research and innovation, policy, business and strategic planning, communications and external engagement, business development and project, programme and change management roles.
Her main interest is looking at reducing inequity and alleviating the impact of poverty through the wider factors that impact our health.
She is a Welsh medium secondary school governor and a trustee of Cwm Taf Morgannwg MIND. She speaks French, can speak conversational Welsh and is learning Spanish. She lives in Cardiff with her husband and cat and has two student daughters.
Lynette has experience in:
- Presentation and communication skills
- Job, university and degree apprenticeship admissions, CVs and interviews
- Planning, time management and goal setting
- Confidence building
Roxanna Dehaghani
Roxanna is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Cardiff University and an External Examiner in Law at the University of York.
Roxanna is a and a Governor at Coleg y Cymoedd. She teaches criminal law and has previously taught criminal justice, legal skills, and family law. She enjoys writing and has published two books and several articles. She also loves working with others, across subjects and sectors.
Roxanna studied in Northern Ireland (less than 50 miles from her home), in the Netherlands (over 800 miles from home), and in Leicester (somewhere in between), before settling in Cardiff. She has worked in a variety of jobs – retail, hospitality, finance, housing, and the advice sector – before moving into higher education and research.
She is passionate about improving the criminal justice system for vulnerable people and widening participation in higher education. She aims to inspire learners to think critically about the law and its role in society.
In her spare time she enjoys walking in the countryside and along the coast, mindfulness, minimalism and yoga. She also likes learning new skills and languages. She speaks Dutch fluently, French and Spanish poorly and is learning Welsh. She is slowly learning to enjoy watching football as her partner, Matt, doesn’t give her much choice.
Roxanna has experience in:
- Public speaking, delivering presentations, and communication
- Academic writing
- Setting and achieving goals
- Job and university applications, CVs, and interviews
- Coaching and teaching
- Networking
- Mentoring and developing others
Sioned Eurig
Sioned is the head of the employment team in Legal and Risk Services, the in-house legal service for the NHS in Wales.
Sioned has worked as a specialist employment solicitor in the NHS since August 2012. She advises HR clients on all aspects of both contentious and non-contentious employment law. Sioned has a particular interest in unfair dismissal and whistleblowing issues and enjoys advising people on these matters.
Sioned studied at Aberystwyth University and moved to Cardiff to complete the Legal Practice Course. While studying in Cardiff, she realised how much she enjoyed employment law, and this interest developed further during her solicitor training.
Sioned is married and a mother to two daughters who keep her very busy. She is still trying to find the right work-life balance, although she is enjoying that process.
Sioned has experience in:
- Presentation and communication skills
- Training and facilitation
- Mentoring, supervising, and developing colleagues
- Writing skills
- Networking
- Prioritising work
Aberdare
Wellington Street
Aberdare
Rhondda Cynon Taff
CF44 8EN
Nantgarw
Heol y Coleg
Parc Nantgarw
Cardiff
CF15 7QY
Rhondda
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Tonypandy
Rhondda Cynon Taff
CF40 2TQ
Ystrad Mynach
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Ystrad Mynach
Hengoed
CF82 7XR
