A Bradford secondary school is pairing teenagers with professionals in a mentoring scheme to raise their aspirations.

Staff at Carlton Bolling College, in Undercliffe, are identifying a group of 15 Year Ten students who need extra motivation to understand the value of education to their prospects.

Mentors will be assigned to individual pupils by the end of the academic year.

They will meet them once every half term to offer advice and support with their GCSE studies.

About a dozen people who work in Bradford have responded to the school’s search for volunteers and are set to start a training programme this month. Among them are a number of Bradford Council employees.

Volunteer James Brass, 36, a Council planning assistant, left Rhodesway Upper School with five GCSEs at grade C and a U in maths. He worked as a paper boy, labourer, office clerk, lab assistant and debt collector before returning to education and gaining a first class degree in environmental science last summer.

He said: “I’ve done all sorts since leaving school so I wanted to pass on my experiences.

“I know that there’s fierce competition for the best jobs, and employers are looking for a real breadth of experience that you can’t always be demonstrated through conventional jobs.”

Josephine Goodyear, 52, a financial support worker to the Council’s facilities management department, said her daughters’ achievements inspired her to be a mentor.

“I brought two girls up on my own since they were ten and 12,” she said.

Her daughter Louise, 26, is an associate partner at a dentist’s in the Lake District and Faye, 24, has qualified as a veterinary nurse.

The school’s vocational support co-ordinator, Rose Banwell, said: “I think having adults coming in who can talk to students about their own experiences can only inspire them to reach their full potential.

“We hope a wide and varied range of professionals and adults will give up some of their time to mentor a student.”

e-mail: ben.barnett@telegraphandargus.co.uk