An "Individual Learning Plan" for every student at a Bschool

Lots of bschools today are reaching out and welcoming interventions that will create some perceived value to the developmental systems present in the curriculum. One such thing I cam across recently at the School of Inspired Leadership a.k.a. SOIL was their "Individual learning plan".

According to SOIL, every student at SOIL uses his Caliper report (psychometric assessment by a world renowned US based firm) to build an Individual Learning Plan at the start of the year. This outlines 5 goals that they see as significant for them to focus on in the coming year. This is unique in the fact that every student therefore focuses on their individual learning goals and their mentor guides them accordingly.

According to me, the first set of requirements for this to happen are -
1. Individual Mentors - amounting to a lot of well qualified faculty members and also dedicated training interventions for the period of 11 months.
2. Well Defined processes- for each and every type of personality trait and level of development. This one is tough as measuring the first level is easy but following up and checking the progress may not be fool-proof and timely.

An Individual learning plan is never a selling point and is merely a neccesity for a Bschool student. Therefore, it is assumed that this factor is treated and conducted in some seriousness else the objectives will fail.

The problem in SOIL's case is that (according to the info I have), the determination process for the competencies to be developed are mostly some character trait. Thats important. But an invidual learning plan will be incomplete without extensive Gap-Analysis of the persons important competencies that will be required to (a) survive the course, and (b) be self-sufficient so that he/she can find the best job by him/herself.

Since SOIL says that it has support from the industry consortium, I believe that they should be the first Bschool in India to stop the placement assistance process thats normally available for candidates in bschools in India. This existent process make people dependant on the placement opportunity given by their bschool and that seems to be the most important factor to join a Bschool at times. Reminds me of the hindi metaphor which means "religion makes us lazy as we hope God will make a miracle happen for us". Nothing can better explain the way MBA grads look up to their bschool to provide them with jobs at then end of the 2nd yr.