Best Practice I

Experiential Development

Objectives

1. To provide exposure beyond the classroom and enable practical learning to the students.
2. To enable leveraging & enhancement of in-born skills of students, thereby polishing them further.
3. To ensure a platform to the students for interface with corporate professionals thereby widening their horizons.
4. To provide hands-on, practical exposure in managerial planning, organizing, financing, team building & group dynamics to the students, thereby leading to their all-round grooming & development.
5. To enhance critical thinking & problem-solving skills, thereby developing leadership quality in students.
6. To promote self-learning & to create an atmosphere of learning by listening, observing & doing.

The Context
The fast-changing business environment is placing demands on students to acquire traits and competencies such as high levels of energy, poise and confidence, process orientation, entrepreneurial zeal and a sense of purpose that has a greater impact on society. Among the crucial hard and soft skills sought by employers of management professionals today are domain knowledge, experience and exposure to industry, observation skills, understanding of financial statements and budgeting, coordinating and negotiating with others, emotional intelligence, time management, ability to think on one’s feet and critical thinking skills. From the students’ point of view, this is creating a different dynamic with new career options opening up and several sunrise sectors increasingly coming to the fore. Regular class-room sessions can enable only some of these, and that too partly. It is therefore vital that a simulated cross-functional environment is created to develop these facets in students sufficiently.

The Practice
AIMSR works on the philosophy of creating employable professionals and so we lay emphasis on the conduct of events and activities that enable acquisition of the above traits and competencies and leads to holistic development of the students. Sensitization to the corporate world is provided to the students through various events and activities conducted both within and outside the campus.

Employers seek candidates who are equipped with knowledge and expertise in their field, think out-of-the-box, can multi-task, are enterprising and take initiative, and possess the essential know-how to effectively communicate with different stakeholders.

At AIMSR apart from imparting classroom learning, emphasis is also laid on applied learning in the form of events and activities that are an integral part of the academic calendar and that are planned right at the beginning of the academic season. In the last academic year, AIMSR was able to conduct over 30 events across different genres.

The nature of events and activities conducted at AIMSR span a wide spectrum: commencing with an intensive orientation program to conclaves on specialist areas, to special guest lectures sessions by leading industry professionals on current topics, to an innovation summit and international research conference, to student-driven cultural, literary and sports events, to several different club activities addressing a wide assortment of desired traits such as passion, social sensitization and entrepreneurial fervor. Intense student involvement – as listeners, observers and, most crucially, doers across different stages – is integral to these. The Institute believes that certain events & activities are an essential part of students’ academic journey as it gives a platform to the young brains to showcase their innovative ideas and compete with their peers. Such interactions not only enhance interpersonal and communication skills of students but also prepare them to deal with a wide assortment of people across cultural backgrounds. Besides being active listeners to the intellectual deliberations, students also play a crucial role in the planning, organizing and execution of the events. By becoming active conduits in the process of dissemination, deliberation and learning acquisition of topical issues, students get a completely hands-on exposure to real-world matters. Effective dissemination and learning involve getting appropriate speakers and getting the students to appreciate and internalize the entire process in totality. The uniqueness of such well-rounded practice is manifest in the students becoming well-prepared, independent thinking, confident, focused and disciplined individuals.

Evidence of Success
We at AIMSR measure the relevance and impact of such events and activities in two ways:

1. Mapping the involvement of students against the learning outcomes earmarked for the entire PGDM and MMS programs – Social Responsibility and Ethical Orientation, Creativity and Decision-making, Ability to Manage Change with a Global Perspective, Functional Knowledge, Communication and Inter-personal skills, Collaboration and Team-work, Business Research skills, Entrepreneurial skills and Project Management skills. Events and activities along with student involvement in them are so designed that, across all of them, each of these learning outcomes are adequately met.
2. We take student feedback after each event – covering various aspects of the event deliverable. This feedback serves the purpose of not only assessing the delivery of the event, but also enabling course correction for all future events. Eventually, the visible impact of these activities is evident in the students being well-equipped with practical understanding of situations, technical know-how as well as social skills, which comes to the fore, crucially during the placement process and their career thereafter.

Problems encountered and Resources Required

Resources required for the effective conduct of events and activities are:

• Internal intellectual capital for theme finalization
• The right infrastructure and ambience that enables and facilitates all-round learning and development.
• Intellectual resources commensurate with topical areas

Few issues faced during the conduct of such a wide assortment of events and activities are as follows:

1. Getting the right speakers to come and partake in the knowledge dissemination and learning acquisition at the opportune time is often difficult.
2. Generating sponsorship from industry with a view to fund certain events that demand a certain deliverable quality is often a tough task.
3. Collaborations with relevant industry associations such as BMA and CII

Best Practice I - Initiatives in 2021-22

 

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Best Practice II

Mentoring System

Objectives

1. To help the student identify a career path through a program designed to link students with an expert from the similar profession, who will provide honest insights as students explore & evaluate their potential, educational & career options.
2. To improve problem-solving, communication, leadership, research & entrepreneurship skills of a mentee.

The Context

The Mentee -Mentor concept has prevailed in the organization since its inception. Thereafter, the mentoring system became one of the important and strong pillars. The most important part of this practice is that mentoring connections are a commitment to a student’s preparedness for the future.

The Practice
Mentoring forms an indispensable & significant aspect of a student’s life. At AIMSR, each student is nurtured holistically by faculty. It becomes the students’ endeavor to leverage grooming platforms provided by PIM through the mentoring system and a robust Buddy System. That leads to understanding of the intricacies of the life both professionally and personally, thereby leading to their overall development of professional competencies, human values, work ethics and spiritual values Mentoring also promotes knowledge-sharing and experiential learning between the experienced faculty, which further enhances the value derived from it. Mentoring session is scheduled in every week, during which students are encouraged to open-up and share their experiences, triggers, concerns and perspectives about life and also, in the process, gain insights on different aspects of life. An environment of trust is established between the mentor and the mentee through various activities. Mentors act as active listeners and assess the strengths and weakness of each mentee. Their inhibitions are then addressed keeping in view the sensitivity of each student. The mentees, in turn, develop a lasting bond with their mentors as role models, and philosophers which are maintained throughout their professional pursuits.

A few of specific aspects that the mentoring program aims to achieve are:

1. Helps in better understanding of self 
2. Provides an insight into the work environment in which they would work
3. Provides relevance to their program of studies
4. Assist students to be better equipped to have control over their futures
5. Promote amongst students a better evaluation of relevant careers and subjects pursued
6. Greater understanding about the field or industry of their interest
7. Enhancement of skills
8. Greater confidence and self-esteem
9. Learn about potential career options from someone who has been in their shoes
10. Obtain practical advice from a different perspective
11. Learn about the operations of a specific company and industry

Evidence of Success
The mentoring program has enabled opening-up of the minds of students, most of whom have stepped into a professional program straight out of college, and hence are relatively clued-in to what the world of business entails. The personal hand-holding relaxes them and provides them specific insights on the steps they should take as well as how they should navigate through the world of business. This brings about a positive change in students and enhances their perspective. Students have been able to perform better in academics as well as in job interviews. Moreover, since the long-term worth of an institution is directly linked with the professional progress of its alumni, the bond between the mentor and the mentee aids in the continuous development of the student.

Problems encountered and Resources Required
In the initial stage of the Mentoring process, students take their time to open-up in front of their faculty and establishing a bond takes a bit of time. A relaxed, informal non-classroom environment, therefore, is ideal for the program to flourish.

Best Practice II - Initiatives in 2021-22