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more of an expertise, to be able to take it up a level. For instance, if a student has come from a marketing background, they might find the more generalist programme route not as challenging as it needs to be, whereas a student who has come from an engineering background would find that doing more of a traditional marketing course, with elements of the new curriculum embedded, would suit their needs. We are looking at what students’ needs are and their whole MBA journey; where do they come from and what are their career aspirations? What do you deem to be the most important digital skills that MBAs need? How can Business Schools prepare for a workplace of tomorrow?
have quite traditional areas that they would like to focus on. One aspect which students often mention is sales management, for example, as a distinct subset of marketing. Thinking about things such as communications, for example, more broadly, is something which is important.
How are you using technology at your School and how are you moving the conversation forward and innovating further? Olivia de Paeztron, Learning Designer, ESMT Berlin We were working on innovating with technology before Covid-19 in building our online and blended programmes. [Since then] we've really had to look at how to work on teaching through Zoom and making the most of the platform that we had for the campus courses. We have had to work on equipping the teaching faculty to be comfortable with some different approaches to what an hour of teaching time looks like. How you can hold people's attention and make sure they are staying engaged is, of course, quite different in the classroom. But, in a way, it has been a nice opportunity to experiment with some different ways of teaching and some different activities that you can give students. In terms of our programmes, the full-time MBA has also looked into tracks that are more specialised, with some that work on technology specifically and strategy for digital transformation, and some that are more focused on analytics. Are there new challenges to understanding the skills that students need in the ‘new normal’? Is it harder to identify where there are skills gaps and what needs to be taught or developed? Rhoda Davidson, Director of MBA Programmes, Emlyon Business School Because technology is moving so fast, the skills our MBAs are expected to demonstrate when being interviewed for jobs are also changing fast. It means our understanding of what a competence is in these particular areas is also changing at an incredible speed. What is a competence? It's not just the knowledge, it's the ability to put that knowledge into practice and then also the wisdom to be able to use the knowledge you've experienced in a new context. How do we apply that to this seemingly endlessly changing technological world?
Julie Hodges, Associate Dean, Durham University Business School
Since the impact of Covid-19, we are focusing on the capabilities that students need to look at. The capabilities we're looking at are – yes – the traditional technology skills, but we are also exploring what [technology] means for MBA students who are going out into the workplace and have to manage and lead in very different environments. What does that mean when they are having to manage and lead a workforce that is based in different remote locations, rather than on the same site? I think it's important that we teach not just for today but also for the future. It's about looking at the workplace of the future and the impact that technology will have on work and the workplace itself. I also think it’s about learning to manage staff who are working within that changing environment. What, from your discussions with MBA students, would MBAs like to be taught and what skills they would like to develop?
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Natalie Wilmot, MBA Director, University of Bradford School of Management
We undertook an extensive dialogue with students and graduates about what they were looking for from MBA programmes. Some of the things they identified are things you would expect, for example, entrepreneurship. Traditionally, MBA programmes prepared students for roles in large corporate organisations. Now, increasingly, there are students who are interested in doing an MBA because they want to use it to further their own business. When we speak to students about what they're looking for on courses, things like big data management and data analytics come up. That is introduced as a core module within the course, but it's something which students are specialising in, increasingly, through electives and in their final projects, to really put those things into practice. I'm surprised when I ask students about what they want to see on the course. They also still
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