Relevance of MBA in today’s world

World is moving towards skill-based education. Corporates are giving importance to experience, expertise and skills more than the certificates.

The moot question is, in this volatile world does MBA still hold importance?

Thanks to the technological advancement, many manual jobs are getting redundant. AI has started doing software coding, Robots are doing surgeries, voice based services are handled by BOTs. 80% of the current jobs may not exist tomorrow. Then why all this fuss about MBA?

India has taken significant strides in skill development of the youth. Whether it is Skill India Mission, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme, Sector Skill Councils and so on, there is lot of impetus given to skill enhancement, employment generation and increasing the employability of the masses.

Where does MBA stand for in all this?

While there is no doubt that the importance of practical education has increased a lot, it is too premature to write off MBA because of several reasons some of which are:

1) Education till graduation still lacks practical exposure and it is still confined to classroom teaching.

2) Due to linguistic barriers, lack of infrastructural development especially in rural schools and colleges, burden of population because of which one classroom has 60-70 students at a time, the effectiveness of education at times takes a beating till graduation level.

3) The curriculum that is taught may not be as per the industry requirements because industry-academia partnership may not be present till graduation level.

4) Shortage of teachers, not-so-high pay scale for them, lack of holistic education further add to the challenges.

While the importance of skills has increased, there is no substitute to profound subject knowledge into niche areas. MBA offers this opportunity. Even MBA has also evolved over a period of time in India. Beyond the generic specialisations such as Finance, Marketing, HR etc. nowadays many colleges offer special focus on Investment Banking, Wealth Management, Digital Marketing, Project Management, Business Analytics and so on within the specialisation domains. On top of this, the internship opportunities, project work, Capstone projects, Industry guest sessions, Industrial Visits, Simulations, Role Play exercises… all these have completely changed the face of the traditional MBA programmes.

While the overall cost of MBA education from a good B-School has significantly

increased, many banks have come forward to extend education loans making it less burdensome on the pockets of the parents.

Credit based learning, multiple entry and exit points, focus on research, thrust on experiential learning in the New Education Policy of India will be taking the MBA education to a different level all together in the years to come.

In short, acquiring knowledge has no substitute and now you have a unique opportunity to build your skills while acquiring knowledge at the same time which MBA offers to you.

If your B-School has an affiliation with the skill university, good contemporary curriculum, favourable student faculty ratio, strong presence in evergreen sectors such as BFSI increasing the scope of job opportunities then this provides icing on the cake.

So, what are you waiting for? Check the above things before you embark on completing the key milestone in your career. The true value of an MBA is not in the degree itself, but in the expanded network, the refined leadership skills, and the confidence to navigate ambiguity. Embrace the VUCA world with your MBA degree.