There is now a strong case for engineers to study aspects of management, and perhaps even a Master of Business Administration course (MBA). But what relevance does an MBA have to the highly technical skills of a professional engineer, and is there a need for an MBA specifically for Engineers? The new matching section of the Chartered Engineer accreditation provides a requirement to mix the two subjects of management and engineering, and the MBA may provide the perfect opportunity to achieve this.
One way of attaining this is through study on a Master of Business Administration course (MBA). About 25 percent of MBA students are engineers. Increasingly therefore it is expected that more graduate engineers will undertake this qualification in the future. Most MBA courses are aimed at all graduate disciplines. A few universities offer a technical MBA. For example, Sheffield Hallam University offers a unique MBA in Industrial Management.
The MBA has given engineers the broad grounding that was missing in their technical degrees. MBA courses are therefore usually only for those graduates with work experience. Sharing this experience in seminar classes is one of the benefits of studying on an MBA. Mature students, who are usually studying part-time, can bring a wealth of experience to these classes. Assignments usually have the requirement to relate theory to the world of work by students using their own company as a case study. The student therefore gets the opportunity to understand the workings of the company in greater depth, in areas not usually covered in their engineering roles. The company can also benefit from this work through the student's assignment output. Recommendations may even be implemented!
All MBAs require the student to undertake a major project that is written up as a dissertation. This usually incorporates many of the taught modules of the course. In the case of the engineer they usually relate engineering aspects of a company with some or all of these taught modules. One example may be looking at the supply chain for particular products in the company, or a marketing strategy for the development and launch of a new product.
It has been seen that most of the CAT excellence is by engineering students. So, it is evident that they have technical skill and academic good performance. Questions normally arise in the corporate world is, how long an engineers remain in core technical field? Once they make progress in their career gradually their managerial skills overtakes the technical skill, which in turn determines their success. Their success is companies success. Hence it is pertinent to develop those skills which will have edge over the other in performance excellence.
Keeping this in mind, our IIBS offers a Technological MBA which superb builds-in managerial skills coupled with technological utilization in place.