Developing Peer Mentoring Support for TAFE Students Entering 1st-Year University Early Childhood Studies

At Queensland University of Technology (QUT, Australia), in the Bachelor of Education (BEd) (Early Childhood) (EC), Technical and Further Education (TAFE) students with a diploma enroll with advanced standing (1 year's credit). These students share many challenges faced by 1st-year university students-workload, technology, academic orientation, and application. They also experience feelings of isolation and uncertainty in dealing with the "university culture" ( Cantwell & Scevak, 2004 ; Dickson, 2000 ). Often, they do not perform as well academically and their attrition rates are higher than those for 1st-year students and the remainder of the BEd (EC) cohort (Strategic Information & Analysis Division of Finance, Resources, Planning, QUT, 2003). This project addresses issues facing these students in their transition to university by developing an integrated and contextualized mentoring program designed specifically for their needs. Nine early childhood 3rd- and 4th-year students were enlisted as mentors to groups of approximately six transition TAFE students. In this paper we discuss the dynamics of the mentoring scheme and future directions for mentoring projects within the BEd (EC).