Mentoring tertiary students from a secondary school incubator programme focusing on health careers: Findings from a New Zealand study

Abstract

Purpose

Developing the health workforce is an ongoing concern, especially in New Zealand, where Māori and Pasifika populations are under-represented. Programme Incubator (PI) was developed by a health provider to raise awareness of careers in the health sector. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study undertaken in a tertiary institution which involved tracking and mentoring students who had been engaged in PI, and mentoring them through their tertiary studies.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 40 students (n=40) were recruited into the four year study, which involved a survey and participating in focus groups.

Findings

PI was found to be an effective initiative of encouraging secondary students to enter a career in health, but more work is needed to facilitate students’ choice of tertiary provider and academic programme. Within the tertiary sector, mentoring was found to be lacking.

Originality/value

Group mentoring and peer mentoring are introduced to mitigate these concerns and provide students with the mentoring support they require.

Citation

Crawford, R., Monson, K. and Searle, J. (2016), "Mentoring tertiary students from a secondary school incubator programme focusing on health careers: Findings from a New Zealand study", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 424-438. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-02-2015-0012