IP Inclusive Careers in Ideas Mentoring Hub

The Careers in Ideas Mentoring Hub connects people considering a career in intellectual property with volunteer mentors already working in the IP professions. The scheme is designed to help students, school leavers, recent graduates, graduate students and post-docs get practical guidance on how to find opportunities, build relevant skills, and understand the recruitment process in the UK IP sector.

Mentees sign up through the online MentorLoop platform, answer a few questions about the kind of IP career they are interested in, and are then matched with an appropriate mentor where places are available. Mentors offer a fixed number of free sessions and can provide general advice on careers, applications, and what to expect from working in IP, but they do not help with individual job applications.

The hub is intended to widen access to the profession, especially for people who may not already have support from family, friends, school, university, or careers advisers. Because mentor capacity is limited, a waiting list may be used, and priority is given to people the organisers think will benefit most from the scheme.