在職MBA受中層管理人員追捧

Stephen Skripak likes to tell prospective students atVirginia Tech about how he earned his MBA at PurdueUniversity in the late 1980s while working as a youngexecutive at General Electric. He was promoted twicein the three years it took him to obtain the part-time degree.

斯蒂芬•斯克里帕克(Stephen Skripak)喜歡告訴弗吉尼亞理工大學(xué)(Virginia Tech)的潛在學(xué)員，在20世紀(jì)80年代末，作為通用電氣(General Electric)的一名年輕主管，他是如何一邊工作一邊取得普渡大學(xué)(Purdue University)的MBA學(xué)位的。在在職攻讀MBA學(xué)位的三年時(shí)間里，他兩次獲得晉升。

“I decided to go that direction because I was already married, we already had a house and mywife’s income wouldn’t have been enough to sustain our lifestyle,” says Prof Skripak, assistantdean of graduate programmes at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin School of Business. “It fitted mycircumstances perfectly — and my circumstances are not that different from people today: asingle income doesn’t always support the lifestyle, the house payment, the car payment.”

“我之所以決定那么做，是因?yàn)槲乙呀?jīng)結(jié)婚并買了一棟房子，而憑我妻子一人的收入不足以維持我們的生活開銷，”斯克里帕克教授說(shuō)。他目前擔(dān)任弗吉尼亞理工大學(xué)Pamplin商學(xué)院研究生項(xiàng)目副主任。“在職項(xiàng)目非常符合我當(dāng)時(shí)的境況，和現(xiàn)在的人們沒多大不同：一個(gè)人的收入并不總能負(fù)擔(dān)生活開銷、房貸和車貸。”

 

 

Prof Skripak is overseeing Pamplin’s transition away from a full-time MBA degree to offer onlypart-time MBA programmes. Virginia Tech made the decision to go all part-time — offeringexecutive, evening and weekend programmes — last year after watching its full-time MBAapplications drop and part-time applications rise for the past three or four years.

斯克里帕克教授正在負(fù)責(zé)將Pamplin商學(xué)院從全日制MBA教育轉(zhuǎn)向完全的在職MBA教育。在過(guò)去的3到4年間，弗吉尼亞理工大學(xué)注意到申請(qǐng)全日制MBA項(xiàng)目的學(xué)生人數(shù)下降，而申請(qǐng)兼職項(xiàng)目的人數(shù)上升，因此學(xué)校在去年決定只提供在職教育項(xiàng)目，包括EMBA、晚間班和周末班。

“It was simply a numbers game . . . we’re just kind of going with the market,” says Prof Skripak.

“這是個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的數(shù)字游戲……我們僅僅是迎合了市場(chǎng)需求，”斯克里帕克教授說(shuō)。

“People don’t want to give up their jobs in an economy that is this iffy and a great way to getthe MBA without having to go back to school [full time] is the part-time or executive (EMBA)programme.”

“在這么糟糕的經(jīng)濟(jì)形勢(shì)下，人們不想放棄他們的工作。在職教育或者EMBA項(xiàng)目是一種很好的方式，讓人們不用重返校園(全日制)就能拿到MBA學(xué)位。”

Virginia Tech is not alone. Following its merger with Arizona State University, Thunderbird will nolonger teach MBA students and Wake Forest recently announced it would move to all part-timeMBA programmes, which employers increasingly view as on a par with the full-time MBA.

并非只有弗吉尼亞理工大學(xué)這么做。與亞利桑那州立大學(xué)(Arizona State University)合并后，雷鳥國(guó)際管理學(xué)院(Thunderbird)將不再教授MBA學(xué)生，而維克森林大學(xué)(Wake Forest)最近宣布將完全轉(zhuǎn)為在職MBA教育項(xiàng)目。雇主們?nèi)找鎸?duì)在職MBA和全日制MBA一視同仁。

They join the likes of Miami University of Ohio in moving away from the traditional two-yearMBA most US business schools offer.

它們加入了邁阿密大學(xué)MU(Miami University of Ohio)等學(xué)校的行列，逐漸取消了大多數(shù)美國(guó)商學(xué)院提供的傳統(tǒng)上兩年制的MBA教育項(xiàng)目。

Analysts and administrators say the global financial crisis has thrown this long-term trend intosharp relief: prospective students are increasingly unwilling to make the sacrifices that a full-time, two-year MBA demands — pausing their career, missing out on salary and promotions,and taking on considerable debt to fund their studies.

分析人士和管理者表示，全球金融危機(jī)使這種長(zhǎng)期趨勢(shì)陡然清晰起來(lái)：想要取得MBA學(xué)位的人們?cè)絹?lái)越不愿為了兩年的全日制MBA課程而中斷事業(yè)、失去薪水和升職機(jī)會(huì)，并背負(fù)巨額債務(wù)。

Instead, as with the increase in one-year, pre-experience Masters of Management programmes,students and schools are opting for curriculums that do not involve slowing down careermomentum, wreaking havoc on potential earnings and taking a gamble on the job markettwo years down the line.

隨著無(wú)需工作經(jīng)驗(yàn)的一年制管理學(xué)碩士(Masters of Management)項(xiàng)目的增加，學(xué)生和學(xué)校都會(huì)選擇那些不會(huì)拖累職業(yè)發(fā)展，不會(huì)大幅降低薪資，以及不用兩年后再去人才市場(chǎng)賭一把的課程。

This movement is driven by a desire for more diversity in MBA offerings, says Dan LeClair,chief operating officer of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. “One of thekey dimensions of this diversity is flexibility and modulatory,” he says, noting the trend hasemerged in the last three-to-five years. “The driver here is that more and more learners areseeking convenience and the opportunity to continue their education without having to dropout of the workforce.”

國(guó)際商學(xué)院促進(jìn)協(xié)會(huì)(AACSB International)首席運(yùn)營(yíng)官丹•勒克萊爾(Dan LeClair)表示，對(duì)MBA教育多元化的需求推動(dòng)了這種變化。他表示：“這種多元化中的關(guān)鍵一點(diǎn)是靈活性和可調(diào)節(jié)性，”并指出這一趨勢(shì)出現(xiàn)在過(guò)去三到五年中。“驅(qū)動(dòng)力在于，越來(lái)越多的學(xué)員尋求無(wú)需中斷事業(yè)即可繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)的便利和機(jī)會(huì)。”

When he took over as dean of Wake Forest University School of Business earlier this year,Charles Iacovou says he did a “deep dive . . . to understand our current situation and thelandscape around us”. In October, the school announced that it would cease offering itstraditional full-time, two-year MBA programme, and instead focus on its part-time, weekendand evening MBA offerings for working professionals.

查爾斯•亞科武(Charles Iacovou)表示，在今年早些時(shí)候出任維克森林大學(xué)商學(xué)院(Wake Forest UniversitySchool of Business)院長(zhǎng)的時(shí)候，他“為了解當(dāng)前我們身邊情況和形勢(shì)……進(jìn)行了深入調(diào)研”。今年10月，學(xué)校宣布不再提供傳統(tǒng)的兩年全日制MBA項(xiàng)目，轉(zhuǎn)為致力于為職場(chǎng)人士提供在周末和夜晚上課的在職MBA項(xiàng)目。

“We concluded that the best thing to do for our school is to simply focus our MBA efforts indelivery modes that don’t disrupt people’s careers,” he says. “The market tells us it’s harderand harder for people to quit their jobs and pursue education.”

“我們的結(jié)論是，專注于不會(huì)擾亂學(xué)員職業(yè)發(fā)展的MBA培訓(xùn)模式對(duì)我們學(xué)校最有利，”亞科武說(shuō)，“市場(chǎng)告訴我們，辭職學(xué)習(xí)對(duì)人們來(lái)說(shuō)變得越來(lái)越困難。”

Prof Iacovou says that while the financial crisis helped accelerate the trend that has led tomore prospective students opting to stay in the workforce, “It is our understanding that thosetrends are long term and not just cyclical”.

亞科武表示，越來(lái)越多的學(xué)員選擇保留職位攻讀MBA，盡管金融危機(jī)加速了這種趨勢(shì)，“但我們認(rèn)為這種趨勢(shì)是長(zhǎng)期的，并非只是周期性的。”

That is in part because of the way talent acquisition and retention practices are changing, addsProf Iacovou.

部分原因是現(xiàn)實(shí)中招聘和留住人才的方式正在發(fā)生變化，他補(bǔ)充道。

“In the past, I think more firms thought the best thing to do was to acquire some young talentand when it reached 27 to 28 years old . . . it was appropriate for that talent to walk away,pursue that degree and the firm thought it could either gain that talent back or get bettertalent,” he says. “Firms are now realising that internal talent retention is a better strategy.”

“我覺得，過(guò)去較多的企業(yè)認(rèn)為，最好是招聘一些青年才俊，在這些員工二十七八歲時(shí)……他們大可以離職攻讀學(xué)位，企業(yè)認(rèn)為要么還能把他們?cè)僬谢貋?lái)，要么可以招些更好的，”他說(shuō)。“現(xiàn)在，企業(yè)認(rèn)識(shí)到留住內(nèi)部員工是一種更好的策略。”

Andrew Robertson, chief executive of global advertising firm BBDO, agrees. Prospectivestudents may not want to give up two years of income or take a break from careeradvancement, he says. “But also more and more employers would prefer that they didn’t stepout [of the job] if they can avoid it.”

跨國(guó)廣告公司BBDO首席執(zhí)行官安德魯•羅伯遜(Andrew Robertson)對(duì)此表示贊同。想要攻讀MBA學(xué)位的學(xué)生可能不想放棄兩年的薪水或者中斷職業(yè)發(fā)展，他說(shuō)，“而且越來(lái)越多的雇主希望員工能不離職就不要離職。”

The pace of innovation, driven by rapid changes in technology, is driving that desire. “Thespeed that things are changing these days, there’s no question there’s a cost attached to that[two-year break] that is greater than just the time and the money,” says Mr Robertson.

技術(shù)的飛速發(fā)展加快了創(chuàng)新的步伐，從而催生了這種需求。“如今世事日新月異，(離職兩年的)代價(jià)無(wú)疑遠(yuǎn)不只是時(shí)間和金錢，”羅伯遜說(shuō)。

Joe Huddle, a recruiter with DHR International, a global executive search firm, says part-timeprogrammes also allow the employer to keep “a stable cord tied” to the employee who, in atypical MBA programme, is spending a lot of time making network connections.

跨國(guó)獵頭公司DHR International的招聘者喬•赫德爾(Joe Huddle)說(shuō)，在職項(xiàng)目還可以使雇主“穩(wěn)定地拴住”攻讀MBA的雇員。在典型的MBA項(xiàng)目中，學(xué)員往往會(huì)花大量的時(shí)間建立人脈。

“Memories fade and loyalty is fickle, and they could be easily wooed by a company coming oncampus to recruit them,” he says. “It’s easier to succumb to that in a full-time programme asopposed to being employed and fully engaged with the company while getting a[part-time]MBA.”

“記憶會(huì)褪色，忠誠(chéng)反復(fù)無(wú)常，如果有公司來(lái)學(xué)校招聘，他們很容易就會(huì)被挖走，”他說(shuō)，“比起保持雇傭關(guān)系，在取得(在職)MBA學(xué)位的同時(shí)全面參與公司事務(wù)的學(xué)員，攻讀全日制項(xiàng)目的學(xué)員更容易被挖走。”