EMBA offers speedy path to success

A study by the Graduate Management Admission Council found that 79 per cent of employers expect to hire MBA graduates in 2017, which is an increase on the 68 per cent who snapped up job candidates with MBAs in 2016.

In a competitive market, the demand for workers with EMBA qualifications is expected to keep on rising.

Vince Dispenza, the director of the Executive MBA programme at Leeds University Business School, is happy to let the quality of his recent graduates speak for itself.

Recent successes have included Sarah Lund, who graduated in 2015 and went on to become head of strategy, risk and assurance at Yorkshire Water.

Ms Lund said she “loved every minute” of her time at the business school, where she felt supported by the EMBA staff.

Mr Dispenza is proud of the fact that the business school ranks among the top one per cent globally.

It holds numerous major accreditations from international bodies in recognition for its research and teaching excellence.

“But what really sells it is when people come to our open evenings and get a feel for the place,’’ said Mr Dispenza.

The school also has an international flavour. Although most of the current batch of 35 EMBA students are from Yorkshire, it has attracted students from as far afield as Germany.

Mr Dispenza added: “I see the students grow in confidence and believe in their own abilities. They learn from each other. We encourage healthy competition.”

The EMBA graduates are often promoted more rapidly than their rival applicants because they will have gained an insight into a number of business disciplines.

As part of the course, for example, students receive world-class tuition in everything from accounting and finance to talent management. And each of the students receives treatment befitting a future top executive.

The advantages for an employer are immediate and obvious. The students will go back to work and put what they have learned in the lecture theatre into practice. They leave with a much clearer vision of their own career path. .

“It gets people to think about how different parts of an organisation fit together,’’ said Mr Dispenza.

Mr Dispenza sees the EMBA course as part of the students’ life-long commitment to self-improvement.

Once they have graduated, the EMBA students can continue to feel part of the wider Leeds Business School family, which is spread around the world.

They could be in Dubai or Doncaster and bump into somebody who has also achieved their dreams with help from Leeds University Business School.