在職MBA受中層管理人員追捧

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

斯蒂芬•斯克裏帕克(Stephen Skripak)喜歡告訴弗吉尼亞理工大學(Virginia Tech)的潛在學員，在20世紀80年代末，作爲通用電氣(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(Purdue University)的MBA學位的。在在職攻讀MBA學位的三年時間裏，他兩次獲得晉升。

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

“我之所以決定那麼做，是因爲我已經結婚並買了一棟房子，而憑我妻子一人的收入不足以維持我們的生活開銷，”斯克裏帕克教授說。他目前擔任弗吉尼亞理工大學Pamplin商學院研究生項目副主任。“在職項目非常符合我當時的境況，和現在的人們沒多大不同：一個人的收入並不總能負擔生活開銷、房貸和車貸。”

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

斯克裏帕克教授正在負責將Pamplin商學院從全日制MBA教育轉向完全的在職MBA教育。在過去的3到4年間，弗吉尼亞理工大學注意到申請全日制MBA項目的學生人數下降，而申請兼職項目的人數上升，因此學校在去年決定只提供在職教育項目，包括EMBA、晚間班和週末班。

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

“這是個簡單的數字遊戲……我們僅僅是迎合了市場需求，”斯克裏帕克教授說。

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

“在這麼糟糕的經濟形勢下，人們不想放棄他們的工作。在職教育或者EMBA項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學位。”

Virginia Tech is not alone. Following its merger with Arizona State University, Thunderbird will no longer teach MBA students and Wake Forest recently announced it would move to all part-time MBA programmes, which employers increasingly view as on a par with the full-time MBA.

並非只有弗吉尼亞理工大學這麼做。與亞利桑那州立大學(Arizona State University)合併後，雷鳥國際管理學院(Thunderbird)將不再教授MBA學生，而維克森林大學(Wake Forest)最近宣佈將完全轉爲在職MBA教育項目。僱主們日益對在職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-year MBA most US business schools offer.

它們加入了邁阿密大學MU(Miami University of Ohio)等學校的行列，逐漸取消了大多數美國商學院提供的傳統上兩年制的MBA教育項目。

Analysts and administrators say the global financial crisis has thrown this long-term trend into sharp 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，全球金融危機使這種長期趨勢陡然清晰起來：想要取得MBA學位的人們越來越不願爲了兩年的全日制MBA課程而中斷事業、失去薪水和升職機會，並揹負鉅額債務。

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 career momentum, wreaking havoc on potential earnings and taking a gamble on the job market two years down the line.

隨着無需工作經驗的一年制管理學碩士(Masters of Management)項目的增加，學生和學校都會選擇那些不會拖累職業發展，不會大幅降低薪資，以及不用兩年後再去人才市場賭一把的課程。

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 the key dimensions of this diversity is flexibility and modulatory,” he says, noting the trend has emerged in the last three-to-five years. “The driver here is that more and more learners are seeking convenience and the opportunity to continue their education without having to drop out of the workforce.”

國際商學院促進協會(AACSB International)首席運營官丹•勒克萊爾(Dan LeClair)表示，對MBA教育多元化的需求推動了這種變化。他表示：“這種多元化中的關鍵一點是靈活性和可調節性，”並指出這一趨勢出現在過去三到五年中。“驅動力在於，越來越多的學員尋求無需中斷事業即可繼續學習的便利和機會。”

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 the landscape around us”. In October, the school announced that it would cease offering its traditional full-time, two-year MBA programme, and instead focus on its part-time, weekend and evening MBA offerings for working professionals.

查爾斯•亞科武(Charles Iacovou)表示，在今年早些時候出任維克森林大學商學院(Wake Forest University School of Business)院長的時候，他“爲了解當前我們身邊情況和形勢……進行了深入調研”。今年10月，學校宣佈不再提供傳統的兩年全日制MBA項目，轉爲致力於爲職場人士提供在週末和夜晚上課的在職MBA項目。

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

“我們的結論是，專注於不會擾亂學員職業發展的MBA培訓模式對我們學校最有利，”亞科武說，“市場告訴我們，辭職學習對人們來說變得越來越困難。”

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

亞科武表示，越來越多的學員選擇保留職位攻讀MBA，儘管金融危機加速了這種趨勢，“但我們認爲這種趨勢是長期的，並非只是週期性的。”

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

部分原因是現實中招聘和留住人才的方式正在發生變化，他補充道。

“In the past, I think more firms thought the best thing to do was to acquire some young talent and 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 better talent,” he says. “Firms are now realising that internal talent retention is a better strategy.”

“我覺得，過去較多的企業認爲，最好是招聘一些青年才俊，在這些員工二十七八歲時……他們大可以離職攻讀學位，企業認爲要麼還能把他們再招回來，要麼可以招些更好的，”他說。“現在，企業認識到留住內部員工是一種更好的策略。”

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

跨國廣告公司BBDO首席執行官安德魯•羅伯遜(Andrew Robertson)對此表示贊同。想要攻讀MBA學位的學生可能不想放棄兩年的薪水或者中斷職業發展，他說，“而且越來越多的僱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. “The speed 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.

技術的飛速發展加快了創新的步伐，從而催生了這種需求。“如今世事日新月異，（離職兩年的）代價無疑遠不只是時間和金錢，”羅伯遜說。

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

跨國獵頭公司DHR International的招聘者喬•赫德爾(Joe Huddle)說，在職項目還可以使僱主“穩定地拴住”攻讀MBA的僱員。在典型的MBA項目中，學員往往會花大量的時間建立人脈。

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

“記憶會褪色，忠誠反覆無常，如果有公司來學校招聘，他們很容易就會被挖走，”他說，“比起保持僱傭關係，在取得（在職）MBA學位的同時全面參與公司事務的學員，攻讀全日制項目的學員更容易被挖走。”