Unlike the traditional full-time Master of Business Administration programs that ambitious young professionals often choose, executive MBA programs tend to focus less on business basics and more on the nuances of business. While a conventional MBA may prepare someone to enter a management career, an EMBA is intended to teach a current leader how to be a more effective manager.
Nonprofit coalition of business schools offer executive MBA programs, the average executive MBA student is 35 years old and has about 15 years of work experience, including roughly nine years of management experience. Because this type of student tends to have significant work obligations, EMBA course schedules are designed to accommodate demanding jobs, with classes often occurring on weekends and weeknights.
These are programs that are designed so that working professionals can fit them into their lives, so you’re not going to go on campus during the day four or five days a week.
There’s a myriad of formats: everything from meeting monthly for three immersive days to meeting biweekly for one or two days.
EMBA class sessions often last for long stretches of time, which allows coursework to be compressed into a fewer number of days than a full-time MBA program often requires.
The academic degree diploma that EMBA students receive after finishing their program is typically identical to the credential granted to full-time MBA students – a Master of Business Administration degree. Schools include the word “Executive” in the formal degree in rare cases, a practice more common in Asia than in the U.S.,
The primary difference between a full-time MBA and an EMBA program is the type of student that the program targets.
An EMBA program is tailored to the needs of experienced business people who want to continue their careers while they pursue graduate education.