Applying the knowledge gained from the 12month MBA at Oxford College of Business

How can you best apply and transfer the knowledge acquired during the 12month AIB MBA program offered at Oxford College of Business? What skills are particularly useful to the MBA student, the MBA graduate and the MBA professional? Completing the 12month MBA at Oxford College of Business is a challenging undertaking, but what comes after?

These questions should be at the core of every prospective MBA student’s consideration as to whether they will benefit from an MBA or not. The MBA Course Director at Oxford College of Business, believes MBA programs should be designed to ensure every aspect of the knowledge acquired is transferable. “Critical to achieving this goal is selecting participants whose experience, skills and goals fit the program’s design. Well-designed MBA programs respect the experience that senior leaders bring to the program as well as the time constraints they face when adding an MBA to their already busy schedules. This is exactly what the 12month MBA offered at Oxford College of Business (OCB) in affiliation with the Australian Institute of Business ( AIB) offers its students!”

The 12month MBA at Oxford College of Business is a comprehensive learning experience in which students have the possibility to apply knowledge to their immediate work environment as they learn new skills and methods. It is in the application that the greatest value of an MBA lays. It is all well and good to have learned the theory behind a host of new business practices, but without actively applying and implementing new skills, the learning process is incomplete. The Head of Academic at Oxford College of Business says that the most important aspect of the 12month AIB MBA qualification is the beginning, not the end of the journey. “Students may learn tools and techniques, but implementation is key,” he says. “This will determine how their career develops over the coming years. The 12month AIB MBA at OCB is a practical MBA and enables participants to look at 11 areas of a business from a very practical perspective. At the end of each module students are required to sit an open- book examination, during which they can use an approved textbook . Every examination question requires students to not only provide relevant theory from the book but also apply the situation to practice by giving particular examples. I see this feature as something very unique to the 12month MBA offered at OCB when compared with other MBA programs.”

Students can apply the knowledge obtained while studying the 12month MBA at OCB to their workplace immediately; however, the main benefits will come in after the student has completed the programme. At the beginning and during the program it is likely to be the hard skills (specific methods and techniques) that will be most relevant to the student’s immediate working environment. These new methods and techniques are immediately available to be implemented in smaller projects or as part of day-to-day business practices. The Course Director at OCB, says this is what MBA students tend to focus on most. “Students are often focused on direct, practical functional skills while still in the program.” However, this focus changes over time. After graduation, the expectations of the employer and colleagues of their MBA employee and workmate will have risen. By this stage, many MBA graduates have often been promoted to oversee more complex projects and areas in which greater levels of leadership skills are required. It is in this phase that a more comprehensive approach to implementing the skills and tools acquired comes in. “After graduation, many of our students are promoted to run large organizational units, or start their own firms,” says the Managing Director at OCB. “Strategy, entrepreneurship and organizational design will be more important at this stage as graduates become responsible for an entire piece of a firm.”

However, it is generally the soft skills that prove most beneficial in the long run. Strategies and techniques for personal development, leadership and management of personnel is what alumni value most, according to the MBA Course Director at OCB. “The OCB Alumni see the benefits of improving their ability to work with and lead people as they progress and move into more senior roles,” he says.

The skills, tools, techniques and knowledge acquired during the 12month MBA at OCB are invaluable, but make even more of an impact on the student’s career, if they are continually applied throughout their professional lifetime. How and whether these skills are applied can make a tremendous difference on the path to greater career heights and should not be underestimated.

The 12month MBA at Oxford College of Business attracts the best minds in the country

At Oxford College of Business, they do more than let you dream; they stimulate you to broaden your mind in search for the right opportunities. The internationally recognized 12month AIB MBA programme is ranked #3 in Australia and #10 in the world by the CEO Magazine (UK) and has been designed to combine theory and practice. It offers a strong business perspective with an emphasis on real-life cases whilst retaining a critical approach to theory, concepts and methods applied to managerial decision-making. Innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability permeate the entire MBA curriculum and students will be taken on a personal discovery journey. Furthermore, Oxford College of Business has strong links to the business society in Sri Lanka and graduates will find a strong corporate presence from Sri Lankan and international firms who are always happy to engage with the school and its MBA students. Not only is it an ideal way of improving one’s salary, it also facilitates career advancement and opens doors to new opportunities – both within a candidate’s existing workplace or further afield.

For more information contact Malindu Ranasinghe on 0714151547 or visit www.ocbsrilanka.com