Qualified mentors, empowered mentees

Across Europe, mentoring is widely used but rarely recognised. Skills are developed in practice, transmitted informally, and only occasionally validated. At the same time, young people are navigating a labour market that is increasingly unstable, fragmented and demanding. EuroMentorLab is built to address that gap. The project is developing a European mentoring certification system based on Open Badges, designed to make mentoring skills visible, portable and credible across countries and sectors.

At the core of the project is a structured training framework co-designed with practitioners: mentors, career counsellors, researchers and organisations working with young people. The framework integrates career management skills, with a focus on helping mentees navigate uncertainty, make informed decisions and build their own trajectories over time.

The pedagogical approach combines socio-constructivist learning with digital tools. Mentoring is not treated as a set of techniques to apply, but as a reflective practice. The project draws in particular on narrative methods such as the Talents & Transitions Patchwork, enabling mentees to make sense of their experiences and project themselves into possible futures. A dedicated digital platform is being developed to host the training, assessment and certification. It will offer modular learning content, multilingual access and integrated accessibility features such as text-to-speech and voice-to-text. Open Badges will be issued as mentors progress, providing verifiable and shareable credentials. The platform is designed to be scalable and usable across different contexts, from NGOs to employment services and corporate environments.

The project will be tested through pilot mentoring programmes in France, Ireland and Slovakia. EuroMentorLab also engages directly with policymakers and accreditation bodies to assure formal recognition of mentors’ training.

The project also carries a broader ambition. It integrates sustainability through the GreenComp framework, encouraging mentors and mentees to consider not only employability, but also the social and environmental implications of career choices. In this sense, mentoring is positioned not just as a tool for labour market integration, but as a space for critical reflection and responsible orientation.