Company Sponsorship for MBA

medea66 · Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:53 pm Post subject: Company Sponsorship for MBA

Hi guys,

Many times a company is willing to pay for the cost of the entire MBA. One example is being sponsored for an executive MBA by having your company pay for the schooling and allowing for 1 day off every other week to allow you to go to school.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to approach your company regarding such a sponsorship?

Thank you.

Kelly McDonald · Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:28 pm Post subject:

I'm going through this process right now at my employer. My suggestions are to talk to people within your organization who have been sponsored in the past and check with HR to see if there is a formal process you need to go through.

jelt · Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:40 pm Post subject:

I would also recommend going through informal channels to get as many stakeholders to support you as possible. My ex-colleague did it by discussing it with his boss, subsequently the CEO (also an INSEAD grad himself) and only after gaining their support did he go through the formal channels.

Kelly McDonald · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:24 pm Post subject:

Agreed, you're going to need buy in from several people within your organization. Companies polices will vary, some are very supportive of employees embarking on MBA's and will likely provide significant support, others will offer time, but no money. Some have very formalized processes, for others it's the old boys network.

One thing for sure, having a sustained track record of performance and visibility within the company is going to be key regardless.

medea66 · Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 1:14 pm Post subject:

I think the focus should then be on taking on more projects, being visible, etc. The other thing I wanted to mention is that the sponsorship policy for an EMBA is not something that is posted anywhere in the firm nor is it discussed by HR, etc. On top of that, those who get this kind of sponsorship rarely share the news with other individuals. So I guess the track record method is what I should use.

MBAPodcaster · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:34 pm Post subject:

This is something I briefly touched upon while talking to the admissions director of UNC. She said they, and many other schools, will help prospectives get the dialogue going with the employers to help finance an EMBA. Start by reaching out to the schools you are thinking of applying to and listen to their suggestions. They’ve helped many students through the tuition financing discussion.

At some point you will have to have a discussion with your superiors about your goals within the company and how an (E)MBA can give you the skills to get there. The goal is to sell the idea of an MBA to the employer as a win-win situation for both parties. The employer should see specific deliverables where they will also reap the benefits of you getting an MBA. For example, are you planning on being able to evaluate financial terms of contracts with the accounting skills you’re going to learn or maybe you are going to be able to take on marketing tasks as you develop these skills through your MBA. If you plan to be able to add specific job functions to your current responsibilities you can easily quantify the value of those functions by going on salary.com and applying a % (depending on how much time you’ll dedicate to these new areas) to a regular fulltime employee who would be doing these functions. Also, when approaching your employer you should have a specific plan of how your current workload won’t be compromised with the time you’re taking to get an EMBA. Think through how you plan to cover your workload if you have to take 1 day off each week or if you need to leave early a few days each week.

You should be prepared to negotiate terms. For example you may guarantee that you’ll return to work for your current employer for at least X years after receiving your MBA and if you leave earlier you will repay a pro-rated portion of their tuition assistance. Also, do some research on what competitive companies offer. You should ask for this information from the schools that you’re applying to as they will have a wealth of info on employers that help finance tuition costs. This will help build a case to your own employer if they want to remain competitive. If cost is an issue you may want to do some research on the tax deductibles employers receive for funding an employees education. Or maybe you can negotiate other benefits from your employer that won’t cost them hard dollars. For example you can ask for a flex schedule for you while you’re in school without any deduction in salary or a guarantee of a promotion/raise upon graduation as long as you keep your performance strong while in school.

Once you’ve built a strong case by thinking through all the relevant details that your employer will be concerned about then you’re ready to sit down and present a winning argument.

medea66 · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:07 pm Post subject:

Wow, thank you very much for that thorough reply! As I mentioned earlier, not many inside the company will help you with this, so thanks for providing your insight.

cjiang16 · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 6:07 pm Post subject:

Good luck

VP_Tatiana · Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:24 pm Post subject:

I would recommend as a first step checking on your company policy regarding tuition reimbursement. I would imagine it is on an internal HR webpage. Most of my classmates at Babson work at Intel, and are fully sponsored. Some say it wasn't easy to get sponsorship, and they had to convince the right person. Others say it was really easy.

One reason I left my employer before I started business school (besides the fact that school, owning my own business, and working for someone else full time would just be too much) was that they provided only about $5K a year in support. That level of support didn't make staying worth it for me.

I talked to some MBAs in my company and learned that the company was inflexible with its $5K/year cap. I was glad I did the footwork before I tried to pressure managers into something that could not be done.

Best wishes,

Tatiana