How does it work?
Bridging the gap between industry and education, our B!G Mentors use their knowledge and experience to mentor student teams online, giving them feedback and advice on their B!G ideas through our bespoke mentoring platform. At the end of the programme you will get your own detailed impact report sharing how you impacted young people across Ireland. B!G Mentoring is flexible, fully digital, low time commitment and has B!G Impact!
B!G Support
You can be a B!G Mentor as an individual or as a team. Each mentor financially supports one student's place on our programmes. This helps keep our programmes free and accessible to young people from all backgrounds, levelling the playing field for all involved.
B!G Mentoring
With just approximately 2-3 hours of your time, you can have a lasting and direct impact on our students. In January/February and April you will support student teams online with feedback and advice on 3-5 projects, all through your bespoke online mentor platform.
B!G Skills
Students are not the only ones to learn in The B!G Idea. Through our unique mentoring experience, you will bring valuable skills back into your workplace.
Mentoring Impact
Why Become a Mentor?
B!G Giving
Give back by sharing your expertise and supporting student teams. This is an easy, meaningful, hands-on way to help young people across Ireland access a multi-award winning programme, build new skills and boost their mindset.
B!G Impact
Proven impact direct to your inbox. Each mentor receives a bespoke, data-driven impact report detailing how you have helped students from all backgrounds develop solutions to the world's biggest challenges.
B!G Community
Build meaningful connections with like-minded peers and be a part of a network of cross-sector professionals with exclusive events and networking opportunities.
Our mentors work with progressive companies
Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 5 million Hosts who have welcomed over 1.5 billions in almost every country across the globe.
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The Department of Education’s mission to facilitate children and young people, through learning, to achieve their full potential and contribute to Ireland’s social, economic and cultural development.
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Microsoft is supporting the B!G Idea, to help empower and guide secondary-level students bring their BIG innovative ideas to life and create real change in the real world!
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At Mastercard we work to connect and power an inclusive digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere and help everyone realise their greatest potential. That’s why we’re supporting The B!G Idea, as they do so with the next generation.
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Understanding challenges faced by others is a big part of our business and a cornerstone of The B!G Idea. We are delighted to support an amazing programme giving students an insight in to creating with the end-user in mind.
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Creativity is the currency of our future generations. The B!G Idea is an incredible initiative to help encourage innovative thinking in today’s youth.
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As one of Ireland’s leading healthcare companies, we are passionate about ‘Inventing for Life’ in all that we do. We are very proud to support The B!G Idea and the next generation of creative inventors and innovators who will shape Ireland’s future.
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Unum Ireland is proud to partner again. We are committed to engaging with programs that create a societal impact where we live and work. The B!G Idea is important to us as it helps young people to learn that creativity and innovation is for everyone and can be applied in so many ways.
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It’s time to Rethink Ireland. It’s time to back big ideas and sustainable solutions. It’s time to create the inclusive Ireland we all want to be part of. Our vision is an Ireland which is more just, equal and sustainable because of social innovation.
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“You’d absolutely love it! It’s amazing to see the ideas that come out of the next generation – it’s incredibly encouraging and rewarding!”
Sarah, Lead Designer, Microsoft
Mentor Blog
Kathy Bradley
Carol Veiga
Niamh Peare
Tanja Bueck
Ciarán Duffy
Kieran Rigby
Niamh Harman
Mary Brennan
Patrick Molloy
“The Mentor feedback really gave us that confidence that we were doing the right things and to keep going with it. It was really, really helpful.”
Ciara, Student, Borris Vocational School