We covered so much information and knowledge in Year 1 of the two year Cranfield EMBA course that I sometimes wondered how if it could possibly weave all of the foundation blocks together to make a coherent learning experience. I shouldn't have worried.
Our second year programme is built of a series of electives that allow everyone to focus more on areas of interest to them and pulls on learning from the first year to apply and grow our knowledge and skills further. I'm currently knee deep in modules focussed on Implementing Change, Entrepreneurship and Advanced Negotiation (my husband is particularly worried about the last one).
It's still tough to balance time for the day job, course and life in general, but the electives rely on you to be more self-directed in your learning which suits my style and preferences for the most part. Writing up my PhD thesis was a solid three month boot camp in desk based research, and honing that discipline over a decade ago has stood me in good stead for this year.
I'm particularly excited about the International Business Experience (IBE) that's coming up. A stand-out feature of the Cranfield MBA is that all students undertake a trip to experience business, culture and life in a different country. After a tough choice of locations, I'm heading to China with over 25 of my cohort in June 2012. We'll be landing in Shanghai (and later travelling to Beijing) and throughout be meeting people from a range of industries and backgrounds, and immersing ourselves in the Chinese experience. In preparation for the trip we're preparing for our report subjects and the more I read, the more I'm looking forward to it. There's a saying that once you've been to China you either get China Fear or China Fever. I'll put odds on that I come back with the latter.
