Individual study plans help meet a wide variety of needs
People wanting to take a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) come from all different backgrounds and need to find the best program to fit their needs.
Some MBA candidates are new graduates, while some are seasoned professionals looking to advance their career, or change direction. Some can study fulltime, others need flexible programs to enable them to carry on with their day job.
“Everyone has a goal to increase their effectiveness,” said Murray MacTavish, the director of Trinity Western University’s School of Business. “I meet with every student and help them come up with an individualized study plan.”
Trinity Western offers two 22-month part-time MBA programs for working professionals — one specializing in Management of Growing Enterprise and the other on Non-Profit and Charitable Organizations. The university also offers a full-time, one-year program which specializes in Inter- national Business. It has a rolling entry allowing students to start any month of the year.
The part-time programs are hybrids with about eight weeks spent on campus and the rest of the course done online through distance learning. The full-time program is held on campus — either in Langley, or in Tianjin, China.
“An MBA is for anyone wanting to enhance their skills and gain tools to make effective decisions,” Murray said.
Tom Spraggs, who graduated from Trinity’s Managing the Growing Enterprise MBA in No- vember 2013, said the program was life changing.
Spraggs took over his father’s law firm Spraggs & Co. about 10 years ago because his father had a bad accident.
“I jumped into his practice earlier than I would have otherwise,” Spraggs said. “I’ve always done law, but I’ve always been keen to learn and I saw a gap between what I could do as a lawyer and what I could do as a lawyer with an MBA.”
Spraggs still practices law but since graduating he’s started a new company Solvere which provides legal information and advice globally. He credits the MBA with helping him improve all of his business endeavours and his personal life.
“It was one of the most invigorating and challenging things I’ve done,” Spraggs said of the MBA. “Everything I learned I could apply in my life and my business.”
“I wish I’d done it 10 years ago,” he said.
Dean Paddock, a student finishing up the MBA program at Royal Roads University (RRU) in Victoria, also said his program was “life changing.”
Paddock leads the Brand Man- agement team at Encana Corporation, a Calgary-based energy company. He said that because he’d never done an undergraduate degree taking an MBA wasn’t even on his radar. Encouraged by mentors and his employer Paddock applied to the program and was accepted on the basis of his work experience.
“The pros [of taking an MBA] have been countless,” he said, noting it’s given him an edge in his career, expanded his network, and that the residency he did in Grenoble, France was a highlight.