The world is rapidly moving from a material economy model to an information economy, where talent, knowledge and experience are the main factors of success. That is why business education plays such an important role today. The opportunity to benefit from the valuable experience of other entrepreneurs, gained over years and even decades, allows you to develop your business more successfully, withstanding all the crises and other troubles.
About where to get the best knowledge today, what is the cost of training and how effective are free courses and trainings, we will tell in this material.
What are the features of business education
The specifics of business education is that its program covers a wide range of knowledge that is relevant and important for the entrepreneur. This includes the basics of economics and finance, marketing and digital marketing, sales management, media planning and budgeting, accounting for managers, methods of financial analysis, management of resources and employees. All these disciplines are rapidly evolving, actively integrating new experiences and various innovative technologies. That is why the cost of quality business education is quite high, but the money invested once over the next few years can pay off many times over.
However, it is important to remember that lectures are only part of the job. You will have to study a lot, do your homework, analyze practical cases diligently – in general, work hard. You will not gain the knowledge and valuable experience you need by simply paying money for a course.
Most schools today use a blended learning system, where lectures are delivered online and then practical classes are conducted in a face-to-face format. This is an important point, as successful application of the theoretical material in practice requires training under the supervision of experienced and qualified business coaches.
To gain knowledge you have several ways:
- Self-education. For the most part, it will be practically free or the price will be low – you will only have to buy a certain course of video lectures or textbooks;
- Online courses. They can be both paid and free. The effectiveness of each option depends on your motivation (its value in general is critical). Experience shows that paid courses are often more productive because they offer more opportunities, and besides, you will be motivated at least by the fact that you have paid your blood money to study;
- Face-to-face format in an educational institution. This is the most expensive way, its cost can be very high, but it is also the most effective, as it involves practical work in groups, exchange of opinions, joint analysis of the received material and close communication with teachers.
MBA courses
If we talk about comprehensive and full-fledged business education, we most likely mean MBA (abbreviation from Master of Business Administration). This abbreviation is well known to the overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs and executives of large companies in any country of the world. At the same time, although this term contains the word “master”, MBA is not an academic degree in the classical definition, rather it is a confirmation of high professionalism in the field of business management.
MBA as a program of study was created at the very beginning of the last century in the USA. At first, it was a two-year course in business fundamentals, but within the framework of higher education. Students were accepted after school and with virtually zero experience in entrepreneurship. However, a Master of Business Administration degree was not as highly valued then as it is now.
In the 1960s, the first educational institution offering MBA programs appeared in Great Britain, and then they began to open in the rest of Europe.
Today MBA programs accept specialists with higher education and experience in business from 2 years, and preferably – at least 3-5 years. The main task of MBA is to train professional managers of high qualification, to provide them with deep knowledge in management and business administration, theory and practice in management and related disciplines, such as marketing and digital marketing, organization of sales mechanism, business planning, financial accounting and so on.
The MBA course allows you to learn to speak the same language with experts from any field of entrepreneurship, promotes personal growth and rethinking of your business model. A graduate discovers previously unknown talents, develops valuable new skills, and gains confidence in his or her abilities. Of course, an MBA will not turn you into a marketing professional or a financial analyst. On the other hand, as a manager, you will be able to accurately and correctly assign tasks to your marketing department and competently evaluate the results of its work, and the company’s financial statements will not cause you a million questions about what this or that figure means.
Today there are more than two thousand MBA programs in the world, but all of them can be divided into three main categories: a full-fledged MBA program, a specialized program and an abbreviated “mini-MBA”. The set of subjects that make up the course itself may vary from one business school to another.