Before you read this article, here is my disclaimer alert: at age 60, I felt I needed more business and leadership knowledge to remain current and effective in my executive role. I enrolled at the Jack Welch Management Institute (JWMI), obtained my MBA online, and currently teach one of their online courses.
Over the past 10 years, online learning has grown significantly. All generations of the workforce are now able to expand their knowledge base, learn new skills, gain recognition, and be better prepared for a promotion into a leadership position.
The current pandemic that is now affecting us all has not only introduced many of us to remote working but has improved our time management skills. By working from home, we can better manage our schedules, have more uninterrupted work time, be more focused and productive, add flexibility to our schedules, and most importantly, allow us to have a better and healthier work-family-life balance.
With this flexibility, many individuals now feel they have the time for additional learning to elevate their skills and prepare them for a new position with more responsibilities, a higher pay scale, and of course, greater personal satisfaction. They realize their dreams can now come true by extending their remote working capabilities to incorporate obtaining an online MBA degree.
In 2011, Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, and called the “Manager of the Century” by Fortune magazine started the fully accredited MBA program known as the Jack Welch Management Institute. At that time, there were not many 100% fully-accredited online MBA programs. The JWMI MBA earned an international programmatic accreditation through the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). JWMI is also part of Strayer University, which is regionally accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Many traditional classroom-situated programs ridiculed this approach. As always, Jack proved them wrong. Not only was he ahead of the times, but now all the traditional schools are trying to catch-up and initiate their own online programs.
While many educational institutions are playing catch-up, JWMI has always been solely dedicated to online learning. JWMI currently has approximately 2,000 students enrolled for the current semester and will surpass 2,400 alumni by the end of 2020. The JWMI community is one of the most diverse MBA populations, with a global reach in 68 countries and students in every stage of their careers.
There are many advantages to online learning, including learning at your own pace; less tuition than traditional schools; no more traveling to schools and sitting in classrooms; e-learning with colleagues from around the globe; and most importantly, having more fun as you can have a family/work/school balance.
My experience at JWMI was incredible. Not only was I able to learn at my own pace, but as Jack always said, I was able to ”learn it today and apply it tomorrow.” So much of the curriculum I use in my current executive position. The best benefit was the networking that I was able to participate in, as my fellow student colleagues were from all over the United States and many international countries. The diversity of the students, and the cultures we all worked in, made for unique learning opportunities and the development of special friendships that have continued after graduation. Now you can understand why I love teaching here.
JWMI is designed to accommodate any schedule. There are 12 courses required for graduation, and students can take them at their own speed. Students can take one, two, or three a semester or even skip a semester if they have work or family situations that require their attention elsewhere. Most importantly, the tuition is extremely affordable, with many scholarship opportunities available.
JWMI was ranked in the Top 10 programs in 2020 by Poets&Quants based on overall student satisfaction with their online MBA experience and in the Top 25 overall. More importantly, JWMI ranked first in several student satisfaction metrics, including students’ assessment of the overall quality of professors, flexibility, and ability to immediately apply what they learn to their jobs.
If you’ve been considering a graduate degree, think how comfortable you have become working remotely and now consider how this would work if you were pursuing your MBA in the same fashion. Now is the time to grow your professional credentials and obtain that leadership position you always dreamed about.
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Dr. Robert Edwab earned his MBA at the Jack Welch Management Institute at the age of 65. He is still employed full-time as the executive director of the Greater New York Dental Meeting, one of the largest healthcare conventions in the United States, and is also an Associate Professor teaching “Business Communications and Executive Presence” at JWMI.