Mentoring

Someone in your corner who's already done it.

Talent isn't the thing standing between you and a career in the creative industries. Not knowing anyone is.

Sirlute mentoring pairs you with someone working in the industry you want to get into, for free, for as long as it's useful. Not a one-off careers talk. Someone who knows your name, knows what you're working on, and picks up when you've got a decision to make.

We match you on what you actually want, not on who happens to be available. Our mentors come from a network built over twenty years, producers, designers, filmmakers, founders and people who were exactly where you are not that long ago.

You can be mentored alongside a programme, or on its own. You don't have to have done a Sirlute course first.

Request a mentor

Development Areas

Personal

This is the one everybody needs and nobody asks for. You'll work with someone on the things that decide whether the talent ever gets used; confidence, discipline, handling knockbacks, managing your time, and being able to sit in a room with adults and hold your own. It's not therapy and it's not a lecture; it's a regular conversation with someone who takes you seriously and tells you the truth.

Creative

Get feedback on your actual work from someone who does it professionally; your tracks, your portfolio, your film, your designs. You'll learn to hear criticism without taking it personally, work out what your thing is and sharpen it, and understand the standard you're being measured against. Most young creatives are one honest conversation away from being twice as good.

Business

The creative industries run on things nobody teaches you: contracts, rates, rights, tax, how to pitch, when to say no. You'll learn how to price your work, protect what you make, build a network and turn a skill into an income, whether that's freelancing, a business, or getting hired. This is the strand that stops talented people getting taken advantage of.

Become a YxngStar

A YxngStar is what we call a young person who's part of Sirlute, not a student on a course, but someone in the community for good. Sign up once and you get free access to our studios and equipment, a place on our programmes across music, fashion, multimedia and game design, and a mentor who knows your name and what you're working towards. You'll get a personal development plan tailored to you and at least 12 months of support after any programme ends, so you always know what's next.

Plenty of our YxngStars have gone from turning up to a first session to leading them; volunteers become young leaders, young leaders become paid staff. It costs nothing, and it doesn't expire.

Bring Sirlute to your young people.

We deliver commissioned programmes for schools, colleges, pupil referral units, youth offending teams, local authorities and voluntary sector organisations across London. You know which young people need it. We design and deliver the programme at our studios in East London or in partnership with your setting.

Our programmes are mapped to the Gatsby Benchmarks for good career guidance, so what we deliver counts towards your own careers provision rather than sitting alongside it.

Get in touch for pricing.