Meet our degree apprenticeship Mentor of the Year

By using their own personal experience and business knowledge to help guide degree apprentices, mentors can help them to decide on the best course of action to take with regards to their career aspirations and development.

With over 22 years of experience at E.ON and having worked in various teams across the company as a project manager, Steve Bullimore is currently a mentor to one of E.ON’s Project Management degree apprentices and has been since they began their degree apprenticeship in 2022.

Steve’s dedication to being a mentor has recently been recognised by being named ‘Mentor of the Year’ at the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Apprenticeship Awards.

We caught up with Steve following his win to find out more about what it’s like being a mentor to degree apprentices, his views on apprenticeships and his own career path.

Congratulations on being named ‘Mentor of the Year’, what does it mean to you to be recognised for this award?

Personally, it gives me a lot of pride. But it’s only been possible thanks to the great work from everybody involved in our apprenticeship schemes. From the apprentices themselves, to business leads, placement managers, our early careers team and the support from universities.

In your own words, can you please explain the role of a mentor?

For me a mentor is there to steer and guide an apprentice rather than give them all the answers. An apprentice should own their own development, and a mentor should be there to help them develop. A good mentor should stretch their mentee to make sure they’re getting the most out of every opportunity.

What are the elements you enjoy the most about being a mentor?

I find being a mentor really rewarding. I’m passionate about developing people, especially young people. The energy industry is changing, and our new apprentices are the people who will be there to shape and deliver the future. So it’s amazing to see mentees grow and try new things, continually building their skills to move onto new challenges.  

A recent standout moment as a mentor was seeing one of our degree apprentices take on a significant business project and growing into the role and building the confidence of the senior stakeholders around her in her capability.

What are the main challenges to being a mentor?

Letting a mentee make mistakes and sometimes taking a backseat. You learn a lot from mistakes and allowing a mentee to learn from setbacks and develop resilience is just as important as creating an artificial environment where everything goes as planned all of the time.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned from being a mentor?

You don’t need to have all the answers. You just need to ask the right questions and have a network of people who you can refer a mentee to for specific knowledge.

Do you have any advice for anyone considering becoming a mentor?

There isn’t a manual! Every mentor has a different style and approach and that’s great as it’s important for mentees to see diverse approaches and find a way that suits them.

What benefits have you seen E.ON’s degree apprenticeship scheme deliver for young people?

I am and always have been a huge advocate of apprenticeships. To be able to work towards qualifications while at the same time getting practical work experience and putting that learning into practice is a huge advantage over people coming into the business with theory alone.

And unlike a lot of large companies that take on large numbers of apprentices and only keep a few at the end, E.ON really focuses on quality and makes sure everyone can fully give their time to and support the numbers that we take on.

So my advice for anyone considering a degree apprenticeship would be: do it! Be open to trying new things and see everything as an opportunity to learn and develop your skills.

What has your career path looked like?

I started at E.ON over 22 years ago working in customer services and over the years I’ve worked in most areas of the business. From front and back-office customer service to field installation and engineering teams. But the common thread has been working with people to make positive improvements for our colleagues, business and customers.

What do you most enjoy about working at E.ON?

The people. It doesn’t matter what area of the business I’ve worked in; the people are always supportive of each other and want to do a great job and change things for the better.

Also the variety of activities across E.ON and the opportunities this creates. I’ve been able to move around most areas of the business in my career and have never stopped developing myself.

If you had to describe your time at E.ON in three words, what would they be?

Diverse. Challenging. Enjoyable.

And having been named ‘Mentor of the Year’, one of Steve’s mentees, Lucia Miola, has shared what it’s like to have Steve as a mentor and how he’s helping her both professionally and personally.

“Unlike many mentors, Steve doesn’t just have a regular meeting with the mentee to advise them on their career aspirations, he gets involved with our academic learning and placements so he can fully understand our journey as a degree apprentice and how he can best support. Steve is willing to go above and beyond whenever and always has time to provide advice or support when needed. He is a really great example of how a mentor and mentee relationship should be.

“Over the past two years, Steve has guided and supported me but at the same time, actively encouraged me to own my personal development. He doesn’t give me all of the answers, but instead encourages me to think about the solution and how I can find the answer myself and get the most out of my own development.

“The impact of Steve’s mentorship on my personal and professional development cannot be overstated. His unwavering support and encouragement have significantly boosted my confidence. Knowing I have a mentor who genuinely cares about my progress and is always willing to lend a helping hand has been incredibly reassuring.”

Steve is a huge advocate for E.ON’s degree apprenticeship programme and through his hard work and dedication, he has recently been awarded the role as UK business sponsor for the Project Management degree apprenticeship programme. This role is fundamental to the success of the programme by helping to drive the programme forward across the business to ensure we continue to have successful degree apprentices in this area of our business for years to come.

To find out more about apprenticeships at E.ON, visit our Early Careers webpage.