Find Your Path

The Find Your Path mentoring scheme was established six years ago by a group of Old Boltonians keen to pass on their experience to recent leavers, enabling them to leverage the knowledge and contacts of the Old Boy network to their professional advantage.

More than ever, young Alumni will need to stand out and differentiate themselves if they are to succeed in the world of work. The Find Your Path scheme pairs young Old Bolts with a fellow Old Boy mentor, who can offer a wealth of experience, contacts and advice across a variety of sectors and specialisms, including personal introductions to experts able to provide insights into numerous professions; bespoke support with interview technique and preparation to help make a strong first impression; and tailored guidance with CV development.

So far, the scheme has helped over 70 young Old Boys, including Luke James (Class of 2019), who studied Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art, graduating with a First Class Honours degree. Of his mentoring experience, Luke writes:

Thank You David and Peter

In December 2022, Old Boys Peter Acton and David Seddon (both Class of 1971) stepped down as Managing Mentors for the Old Boltonians’ Association’s Find Your Path mentoring scheme, which they had co-founded almost six years previously.

Peter and David established the Find Your Path scheme in 2017, to give back to the School and its pupils, after both received state support to attend the Boys’ Division in the 1960s through the Direct Grant system. Founded upon David and Peter’s shared belief in the vital role that mentoring can play a part in helping young people to successfully join the world of work, Find Your Path has been supporting young Old Boltonians with careers advice tailored to meet their individual needs ever since. During that time, over 70 young Old Boltonians have been mentored by their fellow Old Boys through the scheme as they enter the job market post-graduation or after leaving School.

"I was made aware of the Find Your Path scheme whilst at School and it came again to mind as I was approaching the end of my three-year degree. I was considering a broad range of career paths and felt the scheme could really help me assess myself and guide me as I took those next steps.

“Through the scheme, I was connected with my mentor, Michael Yates (Class of 2019, pictured left), who helped me massively. After looking over my portfolio of work and my CV, Mike gave me advice on how to tailor my applications to show the best of my abilities, and helped me to prepare for interviews to make sure I came across as a confident young graduate.

“The mentorship scheme is a brilliant resource I felt very fortunate to be able to access. It really made a difference, taking me from feeling lost and slightly overwhelmed before finishing university, to understanding the best way to present myself to employers and thus giving myself the best chance of gaining employment, which I achieved swiftly after joining the scheme. I have now started my professional career in a sector of the industry that is very close to my heart, assisting in the design and production process of sportswear for professional teams across various sports for the sports brand O'Neills."

If you are interested in joining the Find Your Path scheme, either as a mentor or as a young Old Boy seeking support with their next steps, please email development@boltonschool.org

Reflecting on David and Peter’s commitment to the scheme, Nic Ford, Head of Boys’ Division, writes: “Whilst their ambitions and outcomes have each been very different, all of the mentees who have been part of the scheme during David and Peter’s tenure as its leaders have benefited hugely from the care and detailed attention they have put into it. The Find Your Path scheme is of particular benefit to our former bursary pupils, so many of whom do not have professional connections of any sense within their own family and personal networks, and we are particularly indebted to David and Peter for the support they have provided to these lads. Their significant efforts have placed the School, we believe, at the forefront of this type of activity within the independent schools’ sector, and we are grateful to the significant time and effort they have dedicated to Find Your Path to ensure that is the case."

Following David and Peter’s ‘retirement’, management of the Find Your Path scheme has now been handed to Old Boys Stephen Lintott (Class of 1989), Stephen Parry (Class of 1975) and Tim Taylor (Class of 1979), who look forward to building upon the success it has enjoyed to date.

In recognition of David and Peter’s leadership of the Find Your Path scheme, earlier in the Spring Term they were jointly shortlisted in Mentor category in the BusinessDesk. com’s Northern Leadership Awards.