By Arial Starks
Are you looking to expand your skillset but not necessarily looking to earn another degree? Vanderbilt Business offers Executive Education programming to help you fill in those knowledge gaps and advance in any aspect of your professional career. We sat down with Executive Education Faculty Director Jon Lehman, who explained Vanderbilt’s various programs to help you add those missing tools to your toolkit.
“Our mission is to change people’s career trajectory. You can learn things by experience, but you can accelerate that by attending one of our programs. You can accumulate that knowledge faster, and you can gain a different perspective than if you just tried to learn it on the job,” said Jon Lehman.
What is the format of Vanderbilt’s Executive Education Programs?
Vanderbilt offers multiple programs in different formats: Programs for Individuals and Custom Solutions for Organizations. Programs for Individuals are open to the public and are delivered in person or live online. Custom Solutions, designed for a specific company, can be one-day workshops or last over several days, depending on the size and goals of the group. Our online certificate programs are taken online and are self-paced. Many of these programs can achieve a certificate if the required number of hours are obtained through the various courses and formats. The goal is for you to walk away with a new set of skills that will help you in your journey to becoming a better leader. All of our Executive programs are taught by our top graduate-level professors. You can click here to see which programs will be offered this year.
Who Should Pursue Executive Education?
Executive Education Programs for individuals are geared towards professionals, most likely in a management position, who are looking to learn a specific skill or become better leaders. Those programs help you to build your professional development and fill gaps without having to go through a 2 or 3-year degree program. Lehman said that Vanderbilt’s Executive Education experience is designed to be “challenging, relevant, and engaging,” which sets it apart from other institutions.
“Our programs allow you to accelerate your ability to achieve your objective of moving up in the organization. Instead of trying to learn everything black and blue, by experience, coming to a program with other professionals and led by subject-matter experts is going to make that journey faster and easier,” said Lehman.
Why Executive Education is Worth It
You may be wondering ‘what is the benefit of participating in an Executive Education program?’ Each program is led by the same Vanderbilt faculty that teaches degree program students, and you will have the opportunity to network and learn from leaders of well-known businesses. With Executive Education you are able to customize the programs and take them as frequently as you want, and you don’t need the time commitment that a full-time student has to dedicate to a degree program. Lastly, earning a certificate is a great self-investment and shows you are a forever learner.
“I now have a stronger sense of what type of leader I am and how to leverage my strengths to both communicate and solve problems,” said Alexander Murray, who participated in Vanderbilt’s Certificate in Leader Excellence program. “Knowing your strengths and capitalizing on opportunities are essential to a leader’s success. The program provided an abundance of valuable information and project tools from areas of strategic innovation, operations, and communication. I can now employ these tools to confidently plan and execute new projects.”
To learn more about Executive Education and all it has to offer, click here.
