CURRICULUM REVAMP
Planning for Success: A Career-Oriented MBA Program
Students can earn one course credit by participating in a career trek to Shanghai/Singapore
Current MBA students with Doug Fick (CEO, Principal HK), Arun Iyer (Chief Digital Officer, Principal HK) and Prof. Tai-Yuan Chen
To offer our MBA students a more relevant and practical education, we have substantially upgraded the curriculum. In addition to strengthening our business technology stream and program flexibility, as covered in the previous issue, starting from intake 2020, we will introduce a series of professional courses to boost students’ interests and commitment in their own career development.
In the past, career and professional development activities, such as career treks, professional workshops, company visits, and coaching, have been optional elements of the program. Yet we learned that some students find it difficult to invest in them due to their study workload. To help them strike a better balance between academic pursuits and professional growth, these activities will be offered in the form of credit-bearing MBA professional development courses.
How does it work? When a student completes one career trek, he or she will earn one credit that counts toward the overall graduation requirement. If he or she attends a certain number of career workshops, coaching, and other related events, two credits can be earned through the Professional Career Training and Coaching/Consultation course.
Meanwhile, the importance of internships cannot be understated for those who seek a career switch; therefore, full-time students who have completed 80 hours of internships will be granted two credits through the MBA Practical Internship Experience course.
For those who are completely new to the local job market and face a bigger challenge in seeking internships, we offer MBA Consulting Projects in partnership with external organizations. In 2019, we worked with the Asian Business Aviation Association (AsBAA) and Principal Financial Group to launch projects on digital strategy, API platform recommendation, and go-to-market strategy.
“When proposing a business solution for one of the biggest aviation groups in China, I needed to come up with specific market intelligence based on the data provided. It was a great opportunity for me to put the theories I learnt in class into real world practice,” said Andrian Lee of the class of 2020, who interned at the Asian Sky Group, a member company of AsBAA, through the consulting project initiative.
Andrian Lee from class of 2020 (second from left) and the Asian Sky Group team
Like the internships, these projects will become credit-bearing from intake 2020 onward. We hope that these measures will encourage students to manage their careers more effectively by upgrading their skillsets and expanding their industry experience and network. At the same time, the new options can provide career-driven students more freedom to customize their MBA journey.
By Christopher Yip, MBA/MSc Career Development team and Sana Chau, Central Team
