About STEP4IEM

STEP — Student Technical & Educational Program is a peer-to-peer mentoring initiative built by IEM students, for IEM students, in partnership with the Institute of Engineering & Management (IEM).

The problem we saw

Many MBA first-year students struggle with the basics of subjects like Business Mathematics, Financial Reporting & Statement Analysis, and other core coursework — not because the faculty teach poorly, but because there's little room left in a packed academic day to ask follow-up questions. Students feel shy asking doubts in class, back-to-back lectures leave no breaks to catch a faculty member, and a short lunch break disappears into assignments. By evening, the concepts that felt unclear in the morning are still unclear.

What we found

We validated this with both a manual classroom survey and an online survey of 49 respondents. 55.1% of students surveyed in class were interested in extra subject support. Online, 63.3% wanted extra help with Business Mathematics, 42.9% with Financial Reporting & Statement Analysis, and 61% wanted career guidance beyond academics — mock interviews, group discussions, and psychological counselling included.

How STEP helps

• One-on-one and small-group peer mentoring in the subjects students find hardest
• Mock GDs, mock interviews, and mock public speaking sessions, online or offline
• Subject and career (internship & job) counselling
• Private one-on-one psychological counselling for students feeling overwhelmed by the coursework
• Research paper writing guidance for Scopus and HBR-track publications

Who's behind STEP

STEP is run by Team Accelerators: Prantik Sarkar (CEO), Sayani Das (CHRO), and Priyankita Saha (CFO), with trainers drawn from IEM's own top-performing students.