National Mentoring Summit 2024

Speech by Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth & Ministry of Trade and Industry at the National Mentoring Summit on 1 Nov 2024

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. Good morning, everyone. Happy Deepavali to our friends who are celebrating. Deep gratitude to all partners in this room. Thanks for joining us at our 6th National Mentoring Summit.
2. Glad to see familiar faces — corporate leaders, mentoring organisations, educators, professionals, and allies — united by our shared belief in the power of mentoring.
3. This year’s theme "Mentoring Matters: Guiding Today, Shaping Tomorrow," emphasises the importance of mentoring to guide and grow our next generation. When I suggested this theme to our team many months ago, it all clicked. Because we all collectively believe that Mentoring Does Matter.
4. This morning, I thought we could explore three questions. First, Why Mentoring Matters. Two, To Whom Mentoring Matters. Three, What we can all do to make Mentoring Matter.

Why Mentoring Matters

5. Mentoring Matters because it serves as the bridge between today’s actions and tomorrow’s success. Mentoring Matters because it can impact our corporates, our communities, and our country.

Our Corporates

6. Imagine corporates looking out for their employees. Nurturing, mentoring, guiding them and giving them the tools to be the best possible version of themselves. Then you imagine corporates who go beyond their corporate structures or businesses to nurture the wider sector or industry they are operating in. Then, imagine the impact they can make, the products and services they can produce to benefit the communities. That’s for the corporates.

Our Communities

7. Then imagine communities on the ground that look out for one another, providing guidance and support, growing that understanding between different faiths, different creeds, different ethnicities, backgrounds, and different causes. Imagine the experienced guiding the young, and the young reverse mentoring the young at heart.

Our Country

8. Then you go a little bit higher, and imagine a nation where different generations come together, to teach, to learn, to nurture and care for one another. One that thinks long term, builds for the long term and nurtures for the long term.
9. A nation that puts the future ahead of itself, and sees in its people — its greatest treasure that the nation produces. To guide, to grow and to give, so that we can be a shining light in our region and beyond.
10. That’s what building the mentoring culture in Singapore is all about. That’s Why Mentoring Matters. Because it can impact our corporates, our communities, and our country.

To Whom Mentoring Matters

11. Then we zoom in to whom mentoring matters. Mentoring Matters to all of us. But especially to our youths because our youths are coming of age in a world unlike any that we have ever seen. The cacophony of views, sounds, and images that make it ever more challenging to decide what is right and wrong, how to cope with complex emotions, and what the future holds.
12. That’s why our focus is on our youths. And because we want to measure what matters, Mentoring SG and Verian earlier this year, started a research study on our youth mentoring landscape. We want to measure what matters so we challenged the team to see what we can measure, use to measure, and what we can do once we find out what impacts, qualitatively and quantitatively.
13. Research suggests there is no “one size fits all” model of mentoring. Effective mentoring programmes rely on a barrel of considerations, such as rapport between mentees and mentors, and the ability for mentors and mentees to access networks and resources through mentorship.
14. Verian will share some of these preliminary insights later, and how we can support both mentees and mentors along their mentoring journey. It’s preliminary research, but we want to push out a report that can inform our decision making.
15. But of course, mentoring matters not just to our youths. Mentoring also matters to all of us. We gain more by mentoring someone, we learn about their lives, their beliefs, their causes, and their universe. And we are better for it. That is why mentors are important. And we benefit from reverse mentoring too.

What can we do together to Make Mentoring Matter

16. This brings me to my third point, a call to action on what we can do collectively to make mentoring better. We know why mentoring matters, and who it matters to. That’s why we launched Mentoring SG in 2022, as part of our Forward SG exercise. To bring government, corporates, schools, mentoring organisations, and individuals like yourselves together, to build a stronger culture of mentoring in Singapore and make mentoring more accessible to our youths.
17. As part of this commitment, Mentoring SG organises Community of Practice (CoP) sessions where mentoring organisations, corporates and aspiring mentors amongst us can come together to share best practices and build collective wisdom.
18. At last year’s Summit, Mentoring SG announced their plan to partner more corporates on industry-led mentoring initiatives. We have made significant progress on this front and are doing more to partner three groups: the private sector, the public sector, and Institutes of Higher Learning.

The Private Sector

19. First, an update on our work with the private sector. By collaborating with 150 corporate partners and 2,500 skilled mentors this year, we have significantly strengthened our mentoring network.
20. This means more youths will have the opportunity to learn from industry experts, and be equipped with skills, knowledge, and professional insights they need, to navigate in their future careers.
21. Recognising that the needs of each industry are different, Mentoring SG worked with corporate partners to develop industry-specific mentoring capabilities by creating a sustainable mentor supply model, where industries take active ownership of mentoring. It’s like what Kelvin (Executive Director, Mentoring SG) mentioned, where we are just connectors, but you are the ones who drive mentorship specific to your communities.
22. These committees will work together to galvanise mentoring efforts within the industry, to provide our youths with relevant, hands-on guidance that helps them navigate their career pathways.
23. This year, we established three key industry-led mentoring groups: Tech & Telco, Sustainability, and Semiconductors.
1. Let’s start with the Tech & Telco pillar, established by a group of dedicated professionals committed to inspiring and preparing young talent for the future. We are growing the tech sector in Singapore and we can prepare our young talent in this sector.
2. The Sustainability pillar brought together a diverse group of professionals and very passionate youth. Our youths know that climate change affects us everyday, and it will affect us more. To further amplify its impact, Mentoring SG is partnering Young NTUC to contribute to their Sustainability Mentorship Programme, which will be launched in the first quarter of 2025. This initiative will equip youths with the knowledge and skills to address the already existing environmental challenges that are confronting our youths, and will continue to confront them deep into the future.
3. In the Semiconductor pillar, Mentoring SG partnered with Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association (SSIA) to promote mentorship in our semiconductor industry. They are reaching out to Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to foster awareness about mentorship opportunities, facilitate connections between young talent and industry professionals, to attract a new generation of individuals to the semiconductor field. SSIA conducted a mentoring session at its Electronics Day earlier this year at ITE College Central with MentoringSG. Every one of you has a semiconductor in your pocket, and this is an emerging sector. Singapore accounts for 11% of semiconductor production in the world, and about 22% of semiconductor equipment manufacturing. We want to prepare our youths for this growing and emerging sector.
24. We are preliminarily focused on and organised around these three industries - but I believe this will evolve over time as even more corporates come on board. The public sector is also very important

The Public Sector

25. That is why, we will work even more closely with the public sector to drive our national mentoring movement. We will work more closely with the public sector on corporate mentoring together with public officers.
26. This collaboration has created opportunities for both corporate mentors and public officers to guide and nurture our youths. For example, we connected polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) students from disadvantaged backgrounds who demonstrated potential and resilience with mentors, who will guide them on their immediate plans after graduation, as well as longer-term career and life goals.
27. This exemplifies a 3P partnership as the mentors come from both Public and private sectors. Corporations such as CISCO, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard, and Schneider Electric have also stepped up be part of this meaningful programme.
28. In addition, Mentoring SG conducted a Mentoring 101 workshop to train public officers as mentors to give them the confidence to connect, communicate and mentor. Following the workshop, the mentors started a one-year mentoring journey with participants of our NYC Leaders Course, to ensure our young leaders benefit from sustained engagement and mentorship post-course as part of their development.
29. These collaborations with the public sector will widen access to mentorship and empower our youths from all backgrounds to reach their potential in education, career, and beyond and be even better versions of themselves.

Institutes of Higher Learning

30. Third, we plan to do more with the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) over the next two years.
31. MentoringSG and Singapore Polytechnic (SP), which celebrates 70 years this year, will launch the first Youth Mentoring Hub (YMH) within the premises of SP. The first youth mentoring hub in a school setting. We are designing this Youth Mentoring Hub to provide students with easy access to mentorship opportunities, fostering leadership and creating a supportive learning environment. By bringing mentorship directly to where students are, we can create a more accessible and impactful learning experience.
1. Through this pilot collaboration with Singapore Polytechnic, over 10,000 students will have access to more tools and support over the next three years, to develop and grow.
2. Mentoring SG will review this pilot and if successful, expand the YMH initiative to other polytechnics and IHLs.

The 2nd Mentoring SG Corporate Excellence Award

32. So, this is what we’re doing collectively to Make Mentoring Matter. Through these collective efforts, MentoringSG has successfully benefitted over 6,000 youths to mentoring networks and resources.
33. But we have much more to do and we want to do more. Mentoring SG's success depends on our partners. And corporates play a key role in our movement. Today, we celebrate the second year of our Mentoring SG Corporate Excellence Award.
34. This award recognises organisations that demonstrate exceptional commitment to the mentoring community. The awardees championed mentoring as part of development within their organisations and also contributed to our wider mentoring ecosystem.
35. We will announce the awardees later, but I want to thank and appreciate them for their efforts. It’s inspiring to witness corporates making remarkable strides in strengthening the mentoring system. And I hope more corporates will see the value of mentoring to drive corporate development and contribute to strengthening the mentoring community.

Call-To-Action: Be a Part of Mentoring SG

36. We have two exciting years ahead of us, with more work to be done. I invite all of you to be part of our Mentoring SG movement.
37. If you are a corporate, join one of our industry pillars to support and shape young talent, and also work with us to create a new industry pillar.
38. If you are a school, join our Youth Mentoring Hub and provide accessible mentoring opportunities for your students.
39. If you are an individual who wants to make a difference, join us as a volunteer mentor.
40. Thank you.