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Credit: Nick Romanenko
Neil Noordyk got his Mini-MBA to advance
his career and show his 10-year-old
daughter, Kimberlee, the value of
education.
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Growing up in Totowa, Neil Noordyk wasn’t a good student. Over many years working at PSEG Services Corp., he found he needed more education if he was going
to advance in his job. When his daughter Kimberlee was born 10 years ago, he resolved to go to college, both for his family’s financial security and to impress upon her the value of an education.
Noordyk first earned an associate’s degree in New York, then a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in information systems through a joint program of Rutgers and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Now, with a new Mini-MBA certificate from the Rutgers Center for Management Development, the 50-year-old senior consultant and project manager says he is considering going for a full MBA degree.
“When I chose a technical curriculum in information systems that required calculus, all of a sudden, things changed for me. I started to realize the value of education. Few programs can meet or exceed the quality instruction that I experienced with Rutgers’ Mini-MBA,” Noordyk says.
The Mini-MBA, designed for working executives, provides a broad introduction to a full master’s in business administration program. In a dozen three-hour sessions, it covers topics such as business strategy, leadership development, marketing, economics, finance, supply chain management, and business ethics and law. Graduates receive a certificate, and those who pass an optional test can earn three credits toward a Rutgers MBA. More than 1,000 have completed the program since its 2003 launch.
The Mini-MBA is offered in two formats: Individuals may take open enrollment classes at Rutgers’ business school in Newark or Piscataway, or at locations in Morristown and Freehold. Companies may request a customized program to be offered for employees at company facilities.
The program is offered by the Center for Management Development (CMD), a project of the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick and the School of Management and Labor Relations in Piscataway. CMD was formed in 1947 to provide management education to the public. “We carry out that mission today by bringing Rutgers to the professional marketplace and management training to working professionals,” says Abe Weiss, the center’s director.
The Mini-MBA is the latest development in a 10-year national growth trend in part-time education and training aimed at working executives. Companies encourage and often pay for their high-potential employees to enroll in these programs in order stay competitive. Participants like the option of pursuing more education while still working. Colleges and universities, already set up to deliver education, have emerged as providers.
According to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, fewer than one-quarter of all MBA’s in the United States were awarded through traditional two-year, full-time programs in 2003, the last year for which figures are available. Nearly half were earned through part-time evening or weekend programs.
There is no official count of accelerated certificate programs, but the numbers are increasing across the country. Rutgers’ Mini-MBA stands out, says Claudia Meer, director of the program, because it offers separate modules on different subjects, taught by experts in their field.
Companies outsource executive education and training to cut costs, cross-train employees, encourage collaboration across departments, and in some cases plan for succession, says J.T. Kostman, a consultant and industrial psychologist based in Somerville who teaches a class in Rutgers’ Mini-MBA program. “I can’t think of a Fortune 500 client, or even nonprofit organization I’ve worked with in the last five years, that hasn’t told me they’d like to improve the business acumen of their second-tier leadership,” Kostman says.
Executives use the programs to quickly learn multiple aspects of business. Cross-training is a critical factor for Noordyk since Public Service Enterprise Group, the parent company of his employer, received a buyout bid from Chicago’s Exelon Corp. Noordyk believes that staff cuts are likely if the deal goes through, and that his Mini-MBA could help him keep his job of 25 years.
With classrooms and faculty already in place, colleges and universities are well placed to cost-effectively meet the growing demand for executive education. CMD classes, which are taught almost exclusively by business school faculty members, pay for themselves, Meer says. “Executive education and training also provide a valuable connection to alumni, who in turn offer access to the corporations for which they work,” she says. Faculty, staff and alumni are offered a discount on the $2,795 tuition for the Mini-MBA.
Weiss wants to expand all of CMD’s programs. One New Jersey firm that hosted multiple in-house sessions of the Mini-MBA asked the CMD to develop the program for its employees in San Antonio. “We’re overcoming the logistical problems of delivering a program 1,000 miles away, and it is scheduled to start in February,” Weiss says. “It’s the right program to serve the right needs at the right time.”
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