1. What is a mentorship programme?
This is a programme that pairs up students with adults, who can offer some friendly advice, guidance and more often, a listening ear, during their growing up years. In essence, a mentor is a friend to the younger person. Mentorship programmes are found in many countries around the world, including Singapore.

We recognize the potential concerns of volunteer mentors (many of whom may have full-time jobs) and parents (who may be unfamiliar with the idea of mentorship).

For HPPS, Promise Works will work very closely with the school, alumni and parents to come up with a feasible programme for its students.

2. Who is Promiseworks?
Promise Works is a local non-profit volunteer group whose key mission is to help youths in need, develop to their fullest potential. One of their key programmes is a student mentorship programme. They have run successful programmes with a few secondary schools in Singapore and HPPS will be their pilot project in a primary school. For their excellent work, they were given the Outstanding New Volunteer Initiative Award by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre in 2003. For more information about the group, please refer to their website at www.promiseworks.org.sg.

3. What type of students will be involved in the programme?
Increasingly, Promise Works has found that much of character development occurs when a child is about 10 - 11 years old. Hence, it is vital to reach out to this group of young pre-teens when they are in primary 5 and 6, before they go onto their secondary school years.

The school will help Promise Works to identify some students whom it thinks will benefit from a mentorship programme. These are likely to be students who may lack attention and guidance at home.

The mentorship programme is not a counseling / social work programme. For students with serious disciplinary / behavioral / learning problems, the school and the Ministry of Education have other avenues to help them.

4. How do the students benefit from the programme?
Studies have shown that students benefit from having an older person (who is not an authority figure) from whom they could seek advice and guidance. They are less likely to develop problems like truancy, and more likely to develop life-long skills such as discipline, respect for others and self-confidence, when they grow older.

5. Am I qualified to be a mentor?
You do not need to have any special qualifications. We are seeking people who are keen to help younger people and able to commit some time to the programme.

Before you become a mentor, Promise Works will provide training sessions with experienced instructors / mentors, which will equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills. In addition, Promise Works will supervise the entire mentorship programme. Training is free of charge.

6. What are the commitments of signing up as a mentor?
Please refer to attached FAQ note from Promise Works.

7. What happens after I sign up?
Please refer to attached FAQ note from Promise Works.