A Look At Alternatives To Business School

The popularity of graduate school is on the rise.  According to the annual Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees, which is conducted by the Council of Graduate Schools, the number of applications to grad school has increased by around 5 percent per year between 1999 and 2009 but, between 2008 and 2009, it increased by a dramatic 8 percent.  The survey also found that more than half of all the master’s degrees awarded in 2009 were for either business or education degrees.  Business degrees are clearly a popular choice for students looking to gain a competitive edge in the business world.

But that may be changing. Increasingly, people that want to advance in their career are looking for an alternative to the MBA. For some people, the education they will receive in a MBA program is not suited to their current career ambitions.

They may need:

• a shorter time commitment
• a more focused business curriculum
• a high-quality training program that include components from the classic MBA curriculum
• a lower cost to justify the program or to pay for oneself

These people are less interested in studying the global economics and multi-national monetary systems and international banking policies that are taught in most MBA programs.  They are opting for shorter training programs that emphasize the specific topics they need in the job they are targeting, and that job opportunity may not wait for the MBA graduation ceremonies.

While these specialized business management training programs are less publicized than traditional MBA programs, there are a growing number of them. Some are offered by universities, i.e., Tufts, Loyola, UCLA, and many are offered by high-quality training companies.  The Business Management or “mini-MBA” Training Program versions offer a focused and practicalalternative to MBA programs.

A recent article in Entrepreneur Magazine highlighted these programs and the reasons for their popularity.  The noted article, “Alternatives to Business School”, cited Anna Urman, the director of the Small Business Development Center, at the Community Business Partnership as saying,  “Attending a MBA program in business school is going to be a general, broad-based curriculum.  Often people desire the B-school learning experience to understand how to manage a large enterprise, or to move into global-scale operations. Other people seek an entirely different educational experience to prepare for starting a micro-business from the ground-up, or becoming a business manager of a department or business segment.”

Credible and practical alternatives to the traditional MBA are sprouting up…alternatives to:

• a multi-year time commitment
• a broad-based curriculum
• very expensive tuition and expanding costs

These training program alternatives are a beneficial development for the business community. Why? Motivated people can utilize one of these alternative programs to quickly become effective with their new found, applicable skills and competencies in their work role.

Several TIGI clients have recognized the value of this development and as a result, we offer two focused programs:

1. The mMBA – a “mini-MBA” program for professionals who want to quickly enhance their business acumen, product-market strategy, and team leadership capabilities (12 days)
2. The BMC – Business Management Course – which focuses exclusively on business acumen and practical finance.  These programs can help business professionals become more confident and effective in financial and project justification discussions (7 days)

 Want to learn more about these programs?  Click here.

Image: opensourceway