One of the biggest drawbacks, in the eyes of prospective employers, is the lack of practical experience behind a large percentage of new MBA graduates. These students have spent their entire course learning the theory of conflict resolution, leadership, mediation, problem solving, and many other things, but lack the expertise and confidence in those areas that only comes with experience. In earlier years, those who entered an MBA program most often had been in the workplace for a significant amount of time, and already had quite a bit of experience with the intricacies of running a business. Recently, however, it has become more common to go straight into the MBA program as soon as the undergraduate degree has been obtained. This results in MBA students graduating with little or no practical work experience.

Hands On MBA Degrees

There are only two schools in all of North America that offer a hands-on practicum with their MBA degree.

Dalhousie

Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, offers a twenty-two-month program that prepares graduates for employment using an eight-month internship at a company. The student first spends six months learning everything from interview skills to proper professional dress and presentation skills, and then are required to pass an interview in order to be offered their internship. During the course of the internship, the student works not only at the company, but also with a coach who helps them to hone their skills on the job.

Laurier

Laurier School of Business and Economics offers an MBA program that also gives students a practical as well as theoretical education, using a “required integrated applied research project”. This means that students are actually working as consultants in various businesses, and are expected to work towards solving a specific problem for the company.

The advantages of this practical education are significant, as evidenced by the fact that a high percentage of these internships lead to eventual job offers by the company they interned with.