Through “Transnational study on mentoring needs”, the MENTOR project aims to understand the needs and expectations of mentors and mentees in order to develop a mentoring system adapted to international mobility experiences at the EU level. The objective of the project is to give all the keys to youth professionals to inform, train and prepare former mobility participants and all those who have already lived abroad and want to get involved, to become mentors. By supporting future mobility participants, mentors will make European mobility more accessible and allay the fears of participants with a specific focus on the most disadvantaged young people and those who have never had the opportunity to go abroad.

This study provides the elements for the development of subsequent products and activities, which will be implemented within the MENTOR project:

• Guide for youth professionals to engage them to contribute to the implementation of a mentoring programme on a European scale, in line with the ambitions of the European Commission and the Erasmus+ programme;
• Training for future Mentors: Mentors, either former international mobility participants or people who have already lived abroad for at least 3 months, will be trained in their role as mentors and provided with training and tools to enable them to have all the necessary keys for their role as mentor and properly accompany mentees (future international mobility participants);
• Mentors & Mentees Portfolio for them to be informed and guided on how to accompany or to be accompanied.

This transnational study collects and analyses the responses obtained with the dissemination in France, Italy, Macedonia, Türkiye and Romania of two questionnaires which had the objective of investigating the existing needs and expectations regarding mentoring in the youth sector.

Thanks to the contribution of the survey participants, the project partners have the possibility to identify effective strategies and tools that will be used to create a guide for youth workers to successfully implement mentoring activities within their organisations.

The transnational study on mentoring will be disseminated not only in the five partner countries but throughout the European Union, with the intent of allowing extensive dissemination of the mentoring needs of youth professionals in relation to international mobility projects.

All tools developed will be open source, freely available for consultation and download via the partners’ websites in English, French, Italian, Macedonian, Turkish and Romanian.