Personally, I feel if you need to be mentored and have your hand held entirely throughout your time as staff (or even “trial-staff”), you may not be ready yet.
I suppose our requirements could be considered quite vague, but personally I think this leaves a lot of room for the applicants to demonstrate just how good of an applicant they are. People who strive to meet (or better yet, exceed) the requirements, have a good shot at staff. It’s not always guaranteed that you’ll get promoted however, as we take into account multiple things when deciding on helpers.
If we believe an applicant isn’t ready, that means they need to work on something - whether it be activity, helpfulness, their attitude, knowledge, etc. Or simply if they are just too young.
I don’t doubt there are plenty of mature people under the age of 13, but it’s not always like this (Heck! I’m 17 next week, and I know tonnes of people my age that could learn a thing or two from people 5-6 years younger than them!). In rare cases, as Aloro mentioned, we may very well promote someone who is under the age of 13 if we truly believe they’re capable of handling the position.
I again, personally do not see any point in adding in another staff role for players who we don’t think are ready for staff yet. Another thing I’d like to add, is that the Helper Management team are mentors for helpers and new moderators. It is great to hear players opinions on this however :)