Mentoring for the cutting edge
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The aim is to help students get rid of their communication ciencies and excel studies, besides guiding them on the job market
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Proud students of IFIM, Bangalore
THE NEED for management schools to re-invent themselves to have a competitive edge has seen many organisations come up with progressive ideas. One such is mentoring. Not many B-schools have introduced the concept, but there is no doubt that this aspect is getting acknowledged rapidly and B-schools will have to incorporate mentoring as part of their curriculum.
What exactly is mentoring? It takes its origins from a Greek word meaning "enduring" in the context of a relationship between a youth and an adult. The adult, who is the mentor, and the youth have a continued involvement with the former offering support, guidance, and assistance as the latter goes through various phases in the learning process.
Mentors play a critical role, particularly in the light of parents having less and less time to provide guidance to their children on careers and personal issues. There are two types of mentoring, one is natural and the other is structured. Natural mentoring takes place through camaraderie, teaching and counselling whereas in the other it is planned in the curricula itself.
Mentoring serves the following purposes:
* Educational or academic mentoring helps youth improve their overall academic achievement.
* Career mentoring helps youth develop the necessary skills to enter or continue on a career path.
* Personal development mentoring supports youth during times of personal or social stress and provides guidance for decision-making.
Mentoring is popular in some of the reputed B-schools abroad but is yet to be adopted here. However, in Bangalore, the Institute of Finance and International Management (IFIM) has addressed this issue, both in a structured format and informally too. IFIM's brochure takes this as its USP and calls itself the Mentor B-school.
The IFIM Director, R.K. Vijayasarathy, says that the concept has been drawn from the principles of psychology which states that an individual's personality, attitude and learning is largely influenced by the people with whom he/she has proximity and constant interaction. At IFIM, the mentors are the faculty members and each mentor takes care of eight students, addressing both their personal and academic needs.
Prof. Vijayasarathy says that the concept was introduced following IFIM's interaction with the industry. A survey conducted with 500 companies revealed that while management students were good in their subjects, some of them had inhibitions, were poor in communication and lacked focus. With curriculum biased towards generic inputs, the soft skill side has remained neglected.
Surveys have also indicated that many youth have a desperate need for positive role models. With the double income theory gaining credence, the parents are hard pressed for time for themselves. One can imagine the plight of the children.
At IFIM, the programme is clearly structured. From the first term itself, the students are allotted mentors who guide them through the two-year programme period. In the first semester, the students also go through the Art of Living course, where they go through a controlled programme for three days, learning yoga, cleaning up the campus, eating non-oily food and the like.
This, Prof. Vijayasarathy mentions, gives the students a perspective of the Indian ethos. In the second and third semesters, the institute has a course on personality development wherein the students are guided in communication skills, remaining focussed etc.
Prof. Vijayasarathy, who has developed the concept of mentoring on a model called ASK (attitude, skill and knowledge) remarks that unless it is a combination of these aspects it would be difficult for a management student to have that cutting-edge knowledge.
The IFIM started the programme three years ago on an informal basis and it is the second year wherein the structured programme is in place and the students have been experiencing a sea change in their approach to management itself. They are becoming competitive while being firmly rooted into the Indian ethos. They are becoming confident and above all, turning out smart.
R. CHANDRAKANTH
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