UB offers new programme for MBA
If there is one message that is constantly being drummed into the Belizean population, it is that education is the key to success. And nowadays education in Belize no longer stops at primary school, high school, sixth form or even a bachelor’s degree. Ann-Marie Williams reports on the latest opportunity for advancement.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
Thirty mid to upper level professionals will go down in history as the first group of Belizeans to obtain an executive masters degree in business administration from their local university.
Director Sylvia Cattouse says the masters programme was a logical follow up to their first degree offering at UB
Sylvia Cattouse, Director, MBA Programme
“We looked at several programmes, we looked at UK based programmes, U.S. based programmes and we also looked regionally. We felt that those closer to Belize were too North American centric and too expensive. When we looked at the University of the West Indies, we realise that their programme world have had the most relevance for the kinds of management situations we deal with here in Belize.”
The aim is not to provide students with a second degree as much as it is to develop a cadre of professionals in Belize.
Sylvia Cuttouse
“You don’t have to have a first degree in business administration to come into the MBA programme. The MBA programme is general enough as it relates to specific business areas. You can come into such a programme with any background, so it wasn’t difficult to attract people into the programme. It was somewhat difficult for the to go through the matriculation process because it’s somewhat demanding.”
Those requirements include a B average or at least ten years experience in upper management. Student Cresencia Bradley, married with two children, knows that the demands are more than just academic.
Cresencia Bradley, Student
“It’s an immense sacrifice and I believe that if I didn’t have the support of my husband, who at times have to be doing basically everything from cooking, getting the clothes washed to getting the kids to bed, I don’t know how I would ever have been able to still be here.”
Darius Avila, Student
“We keep contact through email, telephone and they understand the situation and I am very happy that they do.”
Sylvia Cattouse
“Although it is and extremely demanding programme, because these are mid-career professionals with quite a bit of experience already in the workplace, they tend to be much more focus than your average student. Also, because of the investment, I suspect that they have in the programme, they tend to apply themselves fully. So we really don’t have problems with absenteeism or late projects.”
The students are currently working on their fourth module, which ends on January thirty-first.
Sylvia Cattouse
“Each module covers two courses and the entire programme is eight modules given over a two and a half year period. The person is occupied during that sixteen-day period for approximately forty hours of classroom time. Outside of that classroom time, it is up to that individual how much work that he or she has to put in to meet particular requirements. Exams and projects are normally due six weeks after the end of the class period.”
And at the end of the class period, students are required to do a two-week residency module in Barbados, which according to Cattouse is an important field experience.
Sylvia Cattouse
“This particular course looks at the symbolic relationship between those three segments, how government, business and society have to interrelate and also the symbiotic needs they have.”
Leslie Walcott, an attorney who lectures in commercial law in her native Barbados, is just one of the many visiting lecturers involved in the MBA programme. Her training area is business government and society.
Leslie Walcott, Lecturer, UWI Barbados
“The interplay between the private sector, the public sector, and societal issues, so we deal with the international regime, the World Trade Organisation, the OECD, the response of regional governments. We look at the role of CARICOM, we look at privatization, social issues such as the environment, AIDS policies. We also look at sexual harassment in the workplace, employees rights, so we deal with a whole set of issues that are germane to business in the Caribbean.”
What is also germane to business, not only in the Caribbean, but also at home, is to have a steady flow of qualified MBA graduates, and it begins with recruitment.
Sylvia Cattouse
“We would probably want to look at private sector management. We’ve had requests for human resources management and some other areas as well.”
And for those who want to advance their academic credentials, the local MBA programme has many advantages over going abroad.
Sylvia Cattouse
“your average MBA programme costs about seventy thousand U.S. dollars. That does not include lodging and boarding and also travel. This programme costs thirty-two thousand, five hundred Belize dollars. The only thing it does not include is the air transportation for the residency module in Barbados.”
Noreen Kerr, who works at the Ministry of Health as a supplies officer, is a recent graduate of UB, but she still wants to upgrade her skills.
Noreen Kerr, Student
“We have to fit into the global arena, so it means that we have to be prepared and educate ourselves in order to meet the challenges that face us out there.”
Fred Shyu, Student
“I believe I’ll learn a lot from the programme, not only from the lecturers, who in my view are very capable and knowledgeable, but also from the participants, among ourselves. Over the courses, we have a lot of round table discussions and teamwork and we have a lot of projects, exercises and we learn a lot.”
Cresencia Bradley
“For self growth. Living in a dynamic, competitive business world, I think that there might be career options out there for me, and I am preparing myself for that opportunity should it arise.”
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
UB’s executive MBA programme is run in conjunction with the Cave Hill, Barbados campus of the University of the West Indies.
