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MBA Programs Embrace STEM

If you’re a STEM professional looking to get an MBA, you’re in luck.

Find MBA reports that MBA programs for STEM professionals is on the rise.

Shortage of STEM workers

Over the next decade, the need for STEM professionals will outnumber supply to the tune of 1 million in the US will according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

To make matters worse, researchers found that for every two students graduating with a US STEM degree, only one is employed in STEM.

“There is a shortage of skilled workers in many different STEM fields, and there has been a particular explosion in demand in recent years for students with skills in analytics,” Greg DeCroix, director of the Supply Chain Management specialization in Wisconsin’s STEM-designated MBA course, tells Find MBA.

Business Schools Training STEM Professionals

To combat the shortage of STEM workers issue, a number of business schools are accepting more students with STEM backgrounds and offering MBAs and master’s programs specifically geared for STEM professionals.

At Wharton, a record 32% of the school’s incoming MBA students in 2017 had undergraduate degrees in STEM. In 2016, the number was 28%. The school also decreased the number of students with financial backgrounds to only 33% — down three percentage points a year earlier, according to P&Q.

The Wisconsin School of Business MBA program was the first in country to receive STEM designation for its two-specialized MBA programs. Specifically, Wisconsin’s operations and technology management and supply chain management specializations were recognized for their “strong STEM orientation and focus on quantitative learning approaches.”

“This designation is a direct result of enhancements we have made to these specialized programs and our specialization model of the Wisconsin MBA that provides intensive career preparation and real-world learning experiences for our MBA students,” Enno Siemsen, professor of operations and information management and academic director of the Wisconsin School of Business’s Erdman Center for Operations and Technology Management, says in a media statement. “This designation highlights the unique capability of the Wisconsin Full-Time MBA Program to spur innovation, promote creative approaches, and generate advancements in our career specialization areas.”

MIT offers a MBA Entrepreneurship & Innovation Track, which MIT says focuses on “launching and developing innovative and emerging technology companies and emphasizes the integration of academic lessons, team practice, and real-world application in entrepreneurship.”

Through this track, students can gain access to initiatives and experiential learning opportunities such as the Silicon Valley Study Tour, where students visit leaders in the Silicon Valley in industries like venture capital, startups, and successful enterprises in STEM fields.

Ultimately, the goal of these programs is to create more STEM workers who will go on to work in STEM fields and create more STEM opportunities for those who follow.

For MIT, applications to its certificate course have already increased by 30% this year. Bill Aulet, managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, tells Find MBA that roughly 10% of MIT’s MBAs go on to start their own enterprises.

Sources: Find MBA, Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Economic Policy Institute, Poets & Quants, Wisconsin School of Business, MIT