Company funding for MBA: Securing an MBA sponsorship from your employer

For aspiring working professional looking to level up their skills and accelerate their career, an MBA can be the key to opening up enticing career opportunities and achieving higher industry credibility. An MBA is not just an opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge, it is also a smart investment for working professionals who plan to achieve more income security and financial cushioning in the long run.

However, we understand that an MBA is an investment and here are some tips for you to persuade your company to invest in you, and their future.

If you are looking at how to get sponsored for an MBA by your company, then it is important to focus on your company’s interests and the benefits of sponsoring you. To gain the support of your employer to sponsor your MBA studies, it is important for you to build a strong business case that demonstrates how the Manchester Global MBA can benefit you and most importantly, your organisation.

In short, you’ll need to persuade your employer that funding your education would be a good investment for the company in the long run.

Here are some tips on how you can pitch the Manchester Global MBA to your employer and put forward a convincing proposal:

Clarify your career goals

Firstly, you need to explain what your career goals are and align them to the business’ objectives.

You can do this by linking specific learnings from the MBA programme with the issues that need addressing in your organisation. For example, the Strategy and Competition module will teach you new approaches to business strategy and implementation using elements of economics and game theory to tackle the business challenges of Industry 4.0, ensuring that your company stays ahead and remains competitive in this new economy.

Highlight the benefits

Always remember to sell the benefits of getting the Manchester Global MBA for your company. Your employer wants to know how sponsoring your MBA and investing in you will help the company’s bottom line.

For example, with our part-time, flexible, blended-learning format, you will be able to continue working full-time and immediately implement what you have learnt on the programme directly to your work. The Manchester Global MBA has a huge focus on the ‘Manchester Method’, a practical, career-based learning approach, where you will have the opportunity to work on a Live Business Project and apply the knowledge you have acquired to solve a real business challenge that your company is facing.

With our vast global network of 60,000 alumni from 176 countries across 6 global centres, and with over 54 nationalities of students represented on the programme, you would have also built valuable connections that your company would be interested in tapping for potential collaborations and partnerships.

Your company will also see an immediate return on investment as you will be able to take back new perspectives to your organisation which will help you see things differently, challenge the status quo, and suggest new solutions to existing problems. Throughout the Manchester Global MBA programme, you will not only be taught to think strategically about the current business landscape, but to be able to anticipate and lead change as well.

Address concerns

Something to consider is your company’s concerns that you will leave after investing in your MBA studies. What you have to assure them is that you have no intentions to leave, but rather to bring more value and be better placed to drive the business forward. You will be even more engaged in the business as a result of understanding more about it at various levels.

Company sponsorships can be an excellent source of funding your MBA studies, so make sure you go about it the right way.