With the invention of the Internet, the business world was turned upside down. Businesses are now required to deal with globalization in order to stay competitive in their industry. And so entered increased importance and demand for master’s degrees – an academic degree awarded for completion of a postgraduate (or graduate) curriculum.
In This Article
What is a Master’s Degree?
Master’s degrees are the highest form of education other than a doctorate or a Ph.D. Master’s degrees can be earned in online programs or in on-campus programs.
A variety of specialties offer master’s degrees giving students a variety of choices to choose from as far as majors are concerned. Master’s degrees are certifications to employers and potential employers that you have been trained in general business management as well as specifically trained on the applications that have to do with your specialty.
More and more companies are now requiring that managers within their firm have or obtain a master’s degree as a condition for employment. While bachelor’s degrees provide students with advanced knowledge and theories of the subject of the major studied, master’s degrees take it a step further by teaching students how to apply the theories and knowledge that they have learned from a bachelor’s degree and apply it to real-world business situations.
Besides being able to earn master’s degrees online or on-campus, there are three main programs available to earn master’s degrees.
Full Time, Executive & Weekend Master’s Degrees
- Full-time: Full-time master’s degrees are typically sought by students who have just graduated from undergrad and go directly to graduate school. These types of students usually don’t work, or at least do not work in a full-time capacity yet.
2. Executive: Master’s degrees earned in an executive program are usually pursued by employers of a company that is asked to or wants to attend a master’s program to enhance their manager’s leadership and management skills. Some companies will have a group of managers completes the program together.
Executive master’s programs are targeted at those individuals who are already employed but need to enhance these skills in order to be better leaders or to be marketable for a promotion into management. The time to earn master’s degrees in executive MBA programs is usually shorter than a full-time program.
3. Weekend — Master’s degrees earned in a weekend program also teach managerial expertise, learning, and innovation and fit easily into a working professional’s schedule because they only need to attend classes on weekends. The time to earn master’s degrees in weekend MBA programs is usually shorter than a full-time program.