The PGP has five primary learning objectives in creating a comprehensive learning environment, but how do these apply to the everyday experience of an ISB student? Let’s take a closer look.
1. Interpersonal Awareness and Working in Teams
Because the ability to work effectively as part of a team is essential in the contemporary business world, our curriculum is full of opportunities for students to learn to work together, designate responsibility, manage conflict and strive toward compromise.
The PGP’s Experiential Learning Programme (ELP), in which teams of students work on a live consulting engagement, is a premier example of interpersonal awareness and teamwork in practice. While the ELP has many benefits — from hands-on experience to exposure in leading edge management research — it shines as the embodiment of this learning objective. After all, what better way to test your interpersonal skills than in a real-world business setting?
2. Critical and Integrative Thinking
The PGP is not just about creating future business managers, but also about empowering future business innovators. Critical and integrative thinking are essential components in learning to identify key issues, draw insightful conclusions and formulate effective responses.
Designed by management education intellectuals, the one-year PGP curriculum prioritizes the ability to quickly analyze situations and inspire outcomes. Students aren’t learning about business theory in a vacuum, but in a holistic environment that fosters a “big picture” viewpoint.
3. Awareness of Global Issues Affecting Business
The 21st century global economy mandates a global perspective in which students must learn to acknowledge and analyze both domestic and global impacts. ISB’s exchange programs with 42 leading business schools from around the world offer an engaging way to expand student perspectives. Outbound exchange programs provide a firsthand look at the dynamics of management in other countries, while inbound programs enhance classroom diversity and peer-learning opportunities on our campuses.
4. Effective Oral Communication
The ability to communicate is a business world requisite; accordingly, the development of organized, clear and persuasive oral communication skills is an integral component of the PGP curriculum. Students work together on projects, in clubs, and in the classroom to not only build strong, confident speaking abilities, but also responsive listening skills.
And because our faculty members live on campus, students also have frequent opportunities for dialogue with leading thinkers in their fields.
5. Ethical Responsibility
Research indicates that today’s business students are more ethically minded than ever before, and the PGP offers the coursework to back it up. While our 2014-15 core curriculum covers the basics of finance, strategy, marketing, operations and IT management, it also include a course on “Responsible Leadership.”
The goal? Creating responsibly business managers — not only for better business, but for the betterment of society.
At ISB, we practice what we preach. These learning outcomes are not just pedagogical, but also real-world learning imperatives intrinsically built into the curriculum.