A special Mentoring hour is conducted daily post academic session during which various activities like INTERCEPT, Seminar, Extempore, GD, Case Analysis, Sector Presentation, Outbound leadership training, Aptitude, TABLET, Self & Career Management activities are conducted.

Support for “slow learners”

Best practice dealing with skill development of students through an elaborate mentoring programme. The groups of students engage in a series of activities, performed in group as well as individually, under the guidance of the Mentor. These practices have delivered phenomenal results over the years.

The Mentoring system of the institute, where every student is allotted a mentor, who is a full time faculty member of the institute, is the biggest support mechanism for Slow Learners. The Mentors engage closely with their ‘Mentees’ to identify the Slow Paced Learners. Regular monitoring of such students by the mentors identifies the extent of difficulties faced by these students. Such cases are then provided counseling by experts to improvise their performance. Additionally, these slow paced Learners are provided with extra support by the Course teachers through tutorials and extra help by means of providing simplified notes and vigorous exercises.

Special educational/learning needs of advanced learners

Each student upon admission is assigned a faculty mentor. A Faculty Mentor is responsible for the social, academic and managerial development of the students. The mentor identifies the slow learners and advanced learners of his/her group and provide differential mentoring so as to help the advanced learners’ bank on their strength and reach their full potential. Various challenging opportunities like paper presentations in national and international conferences are opened for them to make use of. Further, they are advised to participate in various inter college fests which adds value to their exposure and résumé.

The advanced learners are motivated to undertake enrichment and add-on courses on priority basis. The advanced learners are also guided to pursue higher education and provided guidance for higher courses by holding special sessions for Common Entrance Test, Ph.D. Entrance Test, etc. Through counseling and mentoring activities, the students are shaped into positive thinking individuals, capable of facing hardships and challenges in life.

The broad outlines of responsibilities of a Faculty mentor the following affairs:

• Provide Support to the mentee in devising an Action Plan considering his/her goals and abilities.
• Building a relationship of mutual trust and respect with the mentee.
• Be accessible and available to the mentee.
• Maintaining one-to- one or group interaction with the mentees.
• Ensuring his/her regular attendance in all activities of the institute.
• Maintaining Personal Records of the mentees.
• Guiding mentees for Career preferences.
• Conducting Personality grooming sessions for mentees.
• Monitoring Academic Progress.
• Actively listening to mentees to understand their needs and expectations.
• Offering feedback on mentees academic and Co-curricular performance.
• Dealing with any issues or problems of mentees, wherever it is appropriate.

These set of responsibilities help build within the institute an environment which enables closer bonding of the students with the institution. The interactions and interventions help in resolving several issues which otherwise are difficult to even come to notice leading to dissatisfaction and discontent and ultimately to Dropout.A Special interaction hour for the mentor with his mentee is allocated, where mentor and mentees meet and engage in Learning and development activities. The activities include a variety of engagements including:

• Management Games
• Book Review
• Language Training
• Sector Presentation
• News Analysis ( Intercept)
• Seminar Presentation
• Team Building Exercises
• Group Discussions

These exercises, conducted amongst a small group of Mentees, makes the environment within the institution much more rewarding. The mentees are also able to communicate their problems in a much more open and friendly atmosphere. This leads to quick identification and easy resolution of problems of the students.

With the implementation of the Mentoring Program, the institute intended to built up an environment of trust and cooperation, where students feel free to discuss their careers, learning goals and their difficulties. Similarly working closely with a small group of students has helped in identifying each individual’s strengths and weaknesses as well as plan better behavioural interventions for the student group as a whole. Personal problems of the mentees are resolved at the mentor level only and hence there is dramatic fall in grievances of the students. The most significant contribution of the mentoring program has been a near zero cases of Dropout in majority of the Programmes run by the institute.