Second, the “extra work”, especially juggled alongside full-time jobs, can detract potential mentors from committing. “On the mentor side, we assure you that you have a lot to offer in terms of your career and life choices, and (these are some places) where you can go to offer your time and energy, and we can pair you up with mentees.” Rather, (these channels are) where you can get mentoring resources and look for mentors,” he added. So you have to go really upstream to say, this is what mentoring is about. “Mentees don’t even know what mentoring is about. One of the problems Mr Tan has observed is the lack of awareness about what mentoring entails in the first place, which places like the alliance and digital platform Youthopia try to solve. But for those who are not, and I think that’s the majority of youth, then they don’t even know about these channels,” said Mr Alvin Tan, the Minister of State for the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and the Ministry of Trade and Industry.Īs the adviser to the Mentoring Alliance for Action that was launched in March, he aims to create a culture of mentoring in Singapore together with the alliance. For those who are more forward, they might ask if you can be a mentor to them. “You want to help promote a culture of mentoring.
#THE REFRAME MENTORSHIP HOW TO#
However, more than 60 per cent of the respondents who hadn’t participated in such a programme said they would be open to one.ĭespite an appetite for mentoring programmes, there are several possible reasons why mentorship hasn’t taken off here.įirst, a lack of awareness about how to begin a mentoring relationship impedes both potential mentors and mentees. In a Youth Mentoring Sentiment Poll conducted by the National Youth Council in February, only 11 per cent of 1,500 youth respondents aged 16 to 34 indicated that they have participated in formal mentoring programmes. “Essentially, I had to plough my own path in a lot of aspects of my life and career, which might not have been necessary with the help of a relevant mentor."īut while mentoring isn’t a novel concept, and it would have benefited people like Mr Cheng, it has never quite become mainstream practice. I didn’t have the opportunity to learn through someone else’s experience, avoid mistakes that had already been made before, and forge ahead faster," he added. "A lack of mentoring meant that the mistakes I made and experience gained were all my own. The organisation works mainly with secondary and tertiary schools to encourage their students to think beyond grades and courses, and to start reflecting on their definitions of success and what makes a job meaningful. Mr Cheng has been a volunteer mentor with non-profit organisation The Astronauts Collective (TAC) for about five years to help young people who feel as lost as he did.
So I want to provide the next generation with the opportunities I didn’t have."
"I felt that I didn’t know how wide the world could be, and I had to make a decision on my direction in life with very little information available. But this piece of wisdom handed down from my parents holds little water whenever I look around at myself and my peers, who are often either working in jobs that have little to do with their fields of study, or in fields that care little for your paper qualifications and more about your work ethic," he told CNA. "(The benefits of obtaining a degree) may still be true for certain industries.
#THE REFRAME MENTORSHIP PROFESSIONAL#
The 31-year-old filmmaker "doesn't necessarily regret" his decision, but he thinks a professional mentor would have "near instantly" dispelled myths or clarified his fears. SINGAPORE: If he had a mentor at a younger age, Mr Cheng Chai Hong believes he wouldn't have embarked on his undergraduate studies with the belief that obtaining a degree was the only way to enter the working world with a competitive edge.
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