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Executive MBA Program

Executive MBA Program

What is the Executive MBA Program?

An Executive MBA (EMBA) program is geared to enhancing working executives' careers. Many executives will be sponsored by their company. In general, someone taking an EMBA will be a professional, already a specialist in their industry or a field with a need to hone their management skills, mostly in order to continue their way up the corporate ladder.


For this reason, companies and students agree that in order for the student to achieve a promotion they need to enroll on an MBA course. The idea is that the professional experience and expertise of all of the students will become a part of the curriculum's fabric. It's different from the part-time MBA in that rather than meeting in the evenings, EMBA course participants meet typically on Fridays and Saturdays, and this is normally on alternate weekends for a period of two academic years. The programs offer full immersion, including outside-classroom learning and an extensive amount of student/team and faculty interaction.

EMBA students cannot hold internships between their first year and second year of business school. Whilst scholarships are not available generally, loan programs such as that of the Graduate Management Admission Council are available. What is likely is that students will take all of the general management curriculum at the same time with limited opportunity to specialize - sometimes none.

The advantages of the EMBA are really for those people in need of career-broadening management training. The curriculum consists of several courses covering the major business disciplines. Someone who can travel almost anywhere regularly can take them as they do not require permanent relocation.

The main limitations of the Executive MBA revolve around the enormous time commitment that not only the student needs to make, but also their family and their employer. It is a fact that if you add up employment and school an EMBA student will put in 80 to 100 hours every week for the length of the course. This means that your family will need to arrange their diary around you and be tolerant of frequent absences and what might seem to be an inability to concentrate on spending quality time with them. Obviously your course will hopefully result in them being more financially comfortable so that's the trade off. With your employer, they will need to give you time off work to attend class. This is important and needs to be non-negotiable. You have to remember and tell everyone who has demands on your time that your classroom time is four days a month, which means that absences from your classes can not be and are not tolerated.

Since most EMBAs are company sponsored, career services are conflicts of interest so will not be available.