New mentoring office launched; to improve access and quality of mentoring opportunities, resources

To build on the progress made by the Mentoring Alliance for Action (AfA), a new mentoring office was launched at the National Mentoring Summit 2022 by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong on Dec 9.

At the summit, Mr Wong formalised the transition of the Mentoring AfA to the office – Mentoring SG.

First founded in March 2021, Mentoring AfA led a national movement on mentoring and strengthening youth development outcomes.

In his opening address, Mr Wong shared that the new Mentoring SG movement will “support youths from diverse backgrounds as they undergo pivotal life transitions by offering mentorship opportunities that build soft skills and knowledge.”

The summit was attended by close to 500 youths, corporates, mentoring organisations, educational institutes and professionals.

He commended the Alliance and its steering committee for “laying the groundwork of a strong mentoring ecosystem”.

Mr Wong recognised the efforts of Mentoring AfA in rallying for professionals to come forth and commit to mentoring. Since its inception, the Alliance has trained 300 new mentors with the skills and knowledge to mentor youths.

Mentoring AfA also reached out to employees at corporate organisations to raise awareness of the available resources and opportunities should they be keen to embark on a mentorship.

The Alliance sought partnerships across the public, people and private sectors over the past year and a half to provide youths with an array of mentors from varying industries to explore their educational aspirations.

In addition, close to 4,000 mentoring opportunities were curated and offered to youths with the support of new partners and mentors. Mentoring practitioners also developed starter kits to guide new mentoring organisations on what mentoring is about and the training they should undergo.

To make mentoring accessible for youths, a portal named WeConnect was set up to give a comprehensive overview of mentoring opportunities on one platform. Over 1,000 experienced mentors from varied professions have since joined the platform and more than 1,000 successful matches have connected via WeConnect.

Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth & Trade and Industry Alvin Tan believes that Mentoring SG has the potential to “transform Singapore” and “strengthen inter-generational bonds” by building a culture of mentoring.

“We have partnered schools, corporates, youth organisations to lend structure to this movement, by improving the quality of and access to mentoring opportunities and resources,” said Mr Tan who is also an advisor for Mentoring AfA.

“I encourage more partners to come on board to join us in our journey to build our culture of mentoring in Singapore,” he added.

Those interested to become a mentor or mentee can visit mentoring.sg to sign up.

For more content about Forward SG and how youths can participate, click here.