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'Mini' Master's Classes Are One Way Some Job Hunters Seek an Edge

Oct. 11—If an MBA is a major asset in getting a good job, hundreds of students in the Twin Cities hope a mini MBA will give them at least a minor edge in their job hunts.

At the University of St. Thomas, the Mini MBA Program is a 52-hour version of the master’s in business administration degree, typically a two-year program. The mini MBA is geared more to people who want to sharpen their skills and freshen their resumes. Increasingly, students who sign up for the class are either unemployed or nervous about the possibility.

Of the 24 students in one mini-MBA class that started last month, 18 are jobless. These aren’t kids fresh out of school: If their demographics track with those of the other 4,000 St. Thomas students taking nondegree business programs, their average age is 44, and nearly nine of 10 already have a bachelor’s degree or better, including about four in 10 who have a postgraduate degree. Coming from backgrounds in sales, marketing, information technology, insurance and real estate, the students think the program will give them an edge.

As part of the “Watchdog: Your Next Job” project, the Watchdog is examining ways job seekers are coping in this economy. This piece looks at how people who already have a good education are returning to school to enhance their skills.

Thousands of students, many of them subsidized by state and federal funds, are in short-time noncredit business classes around the Twin Cities.

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