06/26/17
After our formal technical training, which may be experiential,
[non-academic] but most often involves the academic realm–
BS, MS, PhD and post-doc, many in government, industry and
entrepreneurial career paths find business certification a very
positive growth dimension.
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This can happen when we choose to continue formal academic
work with an MBA or 13-week MBA certification. When we
explore this option we find 2-year and 3-year MBAs where the
longer term allows developing specialization skills. The 13-week
in-residence programs had prerequisites of solid business experience
and tighter admission and stronger longer term career commitment
from a sponsoring organization.
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One clear strength of the MBA programs is the networking, both
formal, through the university, and informal, through connections
and associations (alumna, alumni).
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In the 1980s formal business certification programs were developed
in parallel to MBA programs. These should be of interest to many
people since they may be more specific to certain aspects and
more broadly respected as providing necessary background and
organization useful in certain fields. These are the PMP Project
Management Professional and Six Sigma “Belt” programs.
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I am surprised that ACS has not incorporated both of these in
career continuous education plans.
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Six Sigma asks about understanding customer requirements and
mapping a process to identify and measure defects, losses and waste
using statistical methods, measurement systems and data analysis.
The training in each seem to differ and it is worth noting PMP
An objective comparison of PMP and Six Sigma appears in
this chart.