Nearly half of 7,200 students, surveyed by charity Humen, felt that mental health difficulties negatively impacted their experiences at university. With prolonged effects continuing after university.
This leads us to two main questions. 
Why is this and what’s the solution?
<h3>What does youth feedback &amp; research say? </h3>
Engaging, listening and working with young people can tell us a lot about the causes that are negatively impacting the youth of today, and there is a huge cluster of causes. 
Just look at what’s happening in the world today:
• Increasing living costs 
• Expensive education costs 
• The effects of Covid-19 
• Difficulty to access quality support 
This only scratches the surface of the issues and challenges faced by a young person today. 
Youth Feedback
BBC’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-61968952.amp">article</a> does a great job in exploring the perspectives and difficulties for young people. 
Daniel Banister, 19-year-old physics student, one of the young interviewees, gave an insight into his personal struggles of feeling as though there was “something wrong with him” during Covid as he felt it had overloaded his brain in a “completely weird way”. 
Ellie Mcnicol, 21, shared her biggest struggle - loneliness. Feeling isolated and lacking the face-to-face valuable connections we all need to experience. 
Is there enough support out there for young people? And going deeper, is the support effective? 
Eli Markham, recent graduate &amp; OKO tech wizard, shared with us that from his experience many university students going through mental challenges feel a ‘lack of support and can’t envision their prospects after uni’.
Research
A survey of 2,438 young people aged between 13-25, showed that 67% of young people believed the pandemic will have long-term negative effects on their mental health (<a href="https://www.youngminds.org.uk/about-us/reports-and-impact/coronavirus-impact-on-young-people-with-mental-health-needs/">Young Minds, 2021</a>).
53% of young people perceive their career prospects are worsening (<a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2021/apr/more-half-16-25-year-olds-fear-their-futures-and-job-prospects">UCL, 2021</a>)
45% of university students fear to step into the world of work (<a href="https://www.prospects.ac.uk/prospects-press-office/nearly-half-of-university-students-unprepared-for-employment">Prospects, 2021</a>)
450% increase in mental health declarations over the last decade (<a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2021/apr/more-half-16-25-year-olds-fear-their-futures-and-job-prospects">UCAS, 2021</a>)
Again this leaves the question - what can be done? How can we provide the best support possible for our young people, especially when they have just lost the support structures from their educational environment?
<h3>Our solution </h3>
We need to inspire and provide mass growth opportunities, not just support the youth of today.
Patchwork support programmes only act as a short-term fix for a long-term issue.
Inspiring youth, giving them role models and experienced guidance from individuals who share similar personality traits with them, not only provides enhanced development but an environment where they actually feel understood. 
That’s how we can make a change, that’s what we’re doing. 
Pairing young people with mentors (within the business community) on the deeper values, beyond what the eyes see at first glance, pairing based on who we are - our personality.
Benefits of personality based mentoring
• A safe space, where young people quickly feel understood and listened to. 
• Seeing the world through someone else's eyes, who knows what it feels like to be you.
• An environment that provides huge learning &amp; development opportunities.
• Improved self-confidence
• Increased hope for the future
• Improved motivation &amp; ambition
• Clearer outlook on life
We could go on, but we all know how mentoring is a huge benefit for all, especially from a mental health perspective. 
With hundreds of young people waiting to grow and be inspired, experience what OKO mentoring can do for your workforce. Be a part of the OKO youth movement &amp; support revolution, <a href="https://www.weareoko.com/become-a-mentor">get started today</a>.

Nearly half of 7,200 students, surveyed by charity Humen, felt that mental health difficulties negatively impacted their experiences at university. Is mentoring the effective solution to this crisis?  Here’s what we think...