Back to School: Advanced Degrees are Good for Business

Guest Bloggers: Allan Gray, director of Purdue University’s Center for Food and Agricultural Business and MS-MBA in Food and Agribusiness Management; Professor of Agricultural Economics; Land O’Lakes Chair for Food and Agribusiness; and Jennifer Stewart-Burton, Content Marketing and Social Media Manager for the Center for Food and Agricultural Business

Advanced degrees are good for people. They help individuals become better thinkers and problem solvers and develop networks along the way.

And that’s good for business.

After all, a company is no more than a collection of people. The only way for a company to get better is to support the improvement of those people. Human resources professionals, especially, hold influential positions when it comes to employee development. Not only can they benefit from going back for advanced degrees themselves, but they also can influence other employees to do the same.

With that in mind, here are the top five reasons why human resources professionals should consider going back to school or encourage their employees to seek advanced degrees.

Why Advanced Degrees are Good for Business

1. Analytical Framework—Advanced degrees offer exposure to a set of frameworks and ideas to tackle problems not seen before. They offer different perspectives and equip graduates with a toolbox so they’re prepared for the new situations they’ll encounter as their careers progress.
2. Developed Network—Graduates of advanced degree programs have expanded professional networks. The relationships built in graduate school are the colleagues who can reach out to each other to support critical thinking and idea sharing.
3. Career Development—Human resources professionals worry a lot about career and professional development, both for themselves and the organization’s employees. They can usually identify the skill constraints hindering professional progress. Advanced degrees can eliminate those constraints.
4. Concept Context—According to Gray, going back for an advanced degree is probably better than going straight out of undergraduate programs. Professionals who have time in the field have context for the tools and concepts they learn in the classroom. Classroom learning goes from theoretical to practical.
5. Degree Accessibility—Advanced degree programs have evolved and are becoming more accessible for working adults. While it can be difficult to take time away from the job, there are now very reputable programs available online, including the MS-MBA in Food and Agribusiness Management from Purdue and Indiana universities. Having on-the-job experiences while congruently learning in a formal classroom setting is very powerful.

So what are you waiting for? Maybe now is the time to break through that ceiling and prepare for the next career step with an advanced degree. Or maybe now is the time to encourage your employees to take that leap.

Learn more about why Purdue’s advanced degrees are good for business as well as other program options in distance education from AgCareers.com’s University Partners.