Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Refining the Executive MBA Program for Today's Challenges

Most of the persons in EMBAs some years back were sponsored by their companies, and were thus studying in order to contribute positively to their companies' personnel. The number of persons being sponsored by their companies for an executive MBA program is declining, though, with an upward trend seen in the number of persons putting themselves through the classes. Because of this, according to a top B-school, more are seeking to make a career change, whether during their program study or after graduation.

The demand for the EMBA career program started to pick up about a decade ago. About three or so years ago, more and more people started asking for a career version of the EMBA. According to a survey on students regarding their needs, about 30 to 40% of them are seeking to make a career shift.

The university is becoming a kind of "time-out" space now, where the student stops for a moment to consider whether or not he needs a career change. Schools claim that they are seeing more and more of their students changing career paths during their studies. Many B-schools started by bringing in career counselling specifically to coach EMBA students, whose needs vary from those studying full-time.

Almost all EMBA students have considerable work experience – usually 7 to 10 years vs. about only four years for MBA full-timers – and they are working full-time while pursuing EMBA programs. That having been said, many of the students are still asking their academic institutions to provide help in locating the professions of their choice. According to the Bloomberg Businessweek graduates survey, many students complained on their schools’ inability to assist them in finding jobs, not getting any real support from their school’s career management recruitment office.

In fact, a number of colleges have stepped up in that regard, to the satisfaction of their students. Many universities combine the aforementioned services with other beneficial ones. The main goal is to teach graduates the skills important to develop their careers now and in the future.

Majority of the people entering the course are yet demanding more help, though. The problem is that more people are taking the courses and fewer companies looking to hire. This is in fact partly why so many are in the course: they are hoping to network in order to make a career shift easier.

There is still some skepticism over the possibility of corporations ever fully abandoning their employees when it comes to EMBA tuition, so some institutions do not yet go into full-blown career assistance programs. However, that is now a thing of the past. The EMBA is now more a program for people who want to move their abilities elsewhere.

There have been significant developments altering the face of the matter. More and more institutions are joining forces to help students make a career shift. There remain some holdouts against the trend, though, most specifically to the idea of truly formalizing these services.

There is much interest in the idea of having recruiters over the university that could assist people in finding their next jobs. However, a number of colleges are not entirely keen on the idea. It is said that because the EMBA degree-takers go into the course with an occupation, they do not require career placement.

The many types of Executive MBA program, schools say, are intended to train students, not to lead them to other jobs directly. Even if some experts say we can expect companies to begin sponsoring employees again soon, more say otherwise, thinking the course now one where students find the resources for changing occupations. Whatever the case, the B-schools have to deal with it delicately.

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