The National Mentoring Matters Awards Ceremony 2026 will take place on the afternoon of
Thursday 12 March 2026 in the City of London.

Every year, the awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of mentors who have actively contributed to the growth of small businesses across the UK as part of the Help to Grow: Management Course.

There will be ten award categories to recognise those who have excelled in 2025. Nine categories are reserved for mentors and one category is dedicated to participants of the Help to Grow: Management Course. 

Who can you nominate?

IF YOU ARE A MENTEE

If you are a mentee of the
Help to Grow: Management Course who has received
1:1 mentoring as part of the course in 2025, 

you can nominate your mentor for all award categories

except for The Mentor's Story and The Mentor's Choice Awards.

If you would like to nominate your mentor for more than
one award category, please submit a nomination for each category.   

IF YOU ARE A MENTOR

If you are a mentor, you can ask your mentee to nominate you, or you can nominate yourself for The Mentor's Story Award. For the Mentor's Choice Award category, only you can nominate your mentee(s).

Please note you can only enter a self-nomination into the Mentor's Story Award category.

IF YOU ARE A HELP TO GROW STAFF MEMEBER

If you are a member of the Help to Grow: Management Course consortium, you can nominate mentors whom you feel have contributed to an award category. You can NOT nominate or be nominated for an award yourself.

What is the deadline for nominations?

Nominations for all award categories must be submitted by Monday 12 January 2026 at 5pm.

Who will select the award finalists and winners?

An independent panel of representatives from the Help to Grow: Management Course consortium partners including Newable, Enterprise Nation and the Association of Business Mentors will select the finalists and for each award category based on the information provided within the nominations. 

When selecting the finalists for the various categories, the panellists may decide that a nomination is more suitable for a different award category based on the scoring criteria, so your submissions may be considered for other award categories. 

A separate independant panel will decide the winners for each award category. Members of this second panel will consist of representatives from the Department for Business & Trade, the Chartered Association of Business Schools and the Help to Grow: Management Course consortium partners including Newable, Enterprise Nation and the Association of Business Mentors. 

You can view the panellist scoring criteria here.

Please note - we will be unable to provide feedback on the final selection decisions.

All finalists will be invited to attend the National Mentoring Matters Award Ceremony 2026 in the City of London on the afternoon of Thursday 12 March 2026, where the winner of each category will be announced.

If you have a question about the National Mentoring Matters Awards 2026, our team would be happy to help.

The national mentoring element of the Help to Grow: Management Course is being delivered by a partnership of Newable, Enterprise Nation and the Association of Business Mentors on behalf of the Department for Business & Trade.