Study that fits around my life

Distance Learning MBA participant, Sergio D'Alessandro, explains how he has managed to fit the Distance Learning MBA into his busy schedule.

I had been considering studying for an MBA for a long time but already knew it could only be on a distance learning basis. I could not afford to leave a permanent job to take a year or two off to study full-time. As much as I wanted to start the MBA, I still needed to do well in the office and be a husband and father back home. Applying for the Warwick Business School (WBS) Distance Learning MBA was therefore a conscious decision I took once I had set priorities and worked out how to manage my time so as not to fall short on any of these responsibilities.

Flexible study

15 months into the programme and I could not be more satisfied with the journey so far. It’s not been easy, but I never thought it would be. The distance learning format gives you a degree of flexibility. From my personal experience, I feel one should not take advantage but use the flexibility of the programme to work around both professional and personal commitments that exist in everyone’s life.

This is easier said than done. In fact, the teaching is so engaging that I ended up wanting to dedicate some time every day to study the content and more hours at the weekends to read articles and engage in forum discussions with my cohort and the academic staff. The diversity of the teaching methods and formats also helps with keeping pace.

Integrating study into my daily routine

There are plenty of group activities in the first year which are useful to familiarise yourself with the overall speed of the course and not fall behind schedule. In fact, one might be tempted to concentrate the studying at the very end, but this would not allow full engagement with the richness of the course materials which are discussed at the weekly live webinar. The interaction with other successful professionals and bright minds stimulates a critical understanding of the course materials. To my great satisfaction, the WBS Distance Learning MBA has consistently taken part in my daily routine for the past year. As well as better distributing the workload, it has also worked well for me as I am able to immediately apply the concepts and frameworks I have learned at work. I found that I was starting to understand details I had never understood before! And, even more, start participating and contribute in discussions that had always appeared too far from my reach.

Doing the MBA has been one of the best decisions I have made so far. If I had to give one aspect of the programme that I appreciate most it would certainly be the fact that the individual modules create an overall unique learning experience across the MBA structure. Each module is connected to the others and expands on specific aspects of business dynamics while still contributing to the overall understanding of how businesses are born, grow, flourish and eventually terminate or transform.  

Find out more about the Distance Learning MBA