Alumni Leadership Mentoring Programme

The Alumni Leadership Mentoring Programme (ALMP) has been designed to support students to navigate their ambitious early career in their chosen field, but also to realise their leadership potential and longer term aspirations.

The programme involves mentors who are all sector leading Birmingham alumni with incredibly inspiring career journeys, keen to share insight into their professions and leadership experiences.

Applications are expected to open again on 29th May 2026, with an expected deadline of 17/07/2026. If you’re interested in applying at this point in time, you can put your details on our expressions of interest form and we’ll be in touch when applications reopen.

**New for 2026 – As part of the ALMP offering, and to compliment your 1:1 Meetings, you’ll be given the choice of attending one of four available site visit events hosted by our ALMP mentors.

The events offered will be an opportunity to network with your fellow ALMP mentees, learn from each other’s experiences in a group setting and hear more from other ALMP mentors about the work they do.

The range of site visits available will be designed to reflect broad interests, ensuring there’s an option for everyone. Please note that the four events will be predetermined based on mentors who have volunteered to host at their workplace. For most of you, the workplace you visit will not be that of your assigned 1:1 mentor, but it will be one you have expressed interest in visiting. If successful in applying, you’ll be given the option to choose which of the 4 events you wish to attend. A small travel subsistence payment will be available to cover travel costs.

You can hear experiences from previous students on the ALMP scheme in the video below:

Transcript is available on YouTube

ALMP overview

The programme provides students with the exclusive opportunity to be mentored 1-2-1 by a University of Birmingham alum who is a senior leader within their field.

Over the course of the mentorship our mentors share their experiences and advice to help students to refine their career plans and to reach their full potential.

Mentor meetings can take place in person but also at times via video call or over the phone.

Are you proactive, interested in progressing into a senior/leadership position, and have a clear idea of the career-goals you would like support with? Then this programme is for you!

Benefits of the ALMP

Gain real insight into a sector and a leadership role within this
Learn from an inspirational and friendly mentor, who wants to invest their time in your development
Establish a professional relationship with an industry expert and develop your network
Sound out your ideas with a mentor who will give you constructive and honest feedback to help you make informed decisions
A fantastic initiative to highlight during recruitment processes
An opportunity to network with other mentors and mentees

View our ALMP case studies from students who have participated in the programme

ALMP mentors

Our mentors are all University of Birmingham Alumni who have gone on to senior leadership roles within their field.

They are from a range of sectors and backgrounds, all kindly volunteering their time to support you with your career journey.

As part of the application process you will be asked to identify mentors you would like to be matched with.

Visit our ALMP Mentors webpage to access the list of mentors.

Eligibility criteria

Priority access to the ALMP programme is given to students in the following category:

Birmingham Scholars. You’re considered a Birmingham Scholar - and therefore eligible for Group Mentoring - if you are in one of the following categories:
Students in receipt of a Pathways to Birmingham - (P2B) which includes the programmes Access to Birmingham, Routes to the Professions, National Access Summer School
Students in receipt of a Realising Opportunities offe
Students in receipt of a Sanctuary Scholarship
Care experienced or Care Leavers
Black IMDQ1 (non P2B)
And/or students who have a home address in an IMD Quintile 1 (indices of multiple deprivation, IMD Deciles 1 and 2, lowest 20%) neighbourhood*

*If your home address is in Northern Ireland you will need to contact us with your home postcode so that we can check your eligibility to apply. You can use this post-code checker above to see whether you are eligible to apply.

If you are unsure if you are eligible for this programme based on the criteria above, please get in contact at mentoring@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Following the interview selection process, if we have remaining mentors available then we will open the programme wider to applications from current undergraduate students in their second or final year during the 2025/26 academic year. We will advertise on our webpages in early September if spaces are available to the wider student population, and which mentors are still available.

If you are unsure what career path you want to follow, we recommend you book a careers appointment with one of our advisers before applying to help give a focus to your meetings and choose the most relevant mentor. Our careers advisers can help you to explore your options.

You then might wish to consider applying to our Careers Network Mentoring Programme where we have hundreds of mentors from a range of sectors and job roles who can support you with your next steps.

Application process

You will need to complete our ALMP Application Form.
If your initial application is successful, you will be invited to complete a pre-recorded video interview. Training resources will be offered to help you prepare.
If successful at the interview stage, you will be invited to our mentee induction session and notified of the mentor you have been matched with.
The mentorship will then take place from mid-September to June time (for the priority access group) and mid-November to June for all other students.

Find out more about the ALMP

Please contact our Mentoring Team via mentoring@contacts.bham.ac.uk.