After seven years of working in management in the United States, Joana Jo Fratini started making plans a couple of years ago to return home to Brazil.
Like a growing number of Latin Americans over the past decade, Ms. Fratini, who already has an undergraduate economics degree from Pennsylvania State University, opted to start her re-entry by earning an M.B.A. in Spain.
She applied to the Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas, or Esade, a top business school based in Barcelona, and was accepted, starting classes last year.
“I really feel like I made the right decision to come to Europe because the whole educational system — the interaction with the professors, the interaction with the students — is so much more similar to the way that business is done in South America than what I was exposed to in the U.S.,” she said in a phone interview this month.
Despite the fact that Spain’s economy is still flagging, its business schools say they are increasingly attracting Latin American students, often with international career experience, who plan to return to Latin America after they graduate.
They see in Spanish classrooms more diversity than in the United States and a business culture nearer their own. Spanish business schools, several of them highly ranked in global lists, are responding to the demand by building ever closer ties with the Latin American region and by making Spanish class time more widely accessible.
Esade, where some 19 percent of this year’s graduating class hails from Latin America, has just started a study program called Doing Business in Latin America.
To better accommodate students who will be working chiefly in a Spanish business environment, the school’s general M.B.A. program — until now taught in English — will offer a full-time Spanish course, starting next year.
IESE, another top-ranked school based in Barcelona, where this year 15 percent of students are from Latin America, started offering an executive M.B.A. in São Paolo, Brazil, in August 2012, offering courses for business professionals from Brazil and neighboring countries in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Major reasons for the renewed interest in Spanish schools include existing economic ties, a shared business culture and, for many Latin Americans, a shared language. Sergio Vera, a Chilean M.B.A. student at IESE, said his course material often focused on Latin American examples: “That’s the thing about the Spanish business environment: There are a lot of Latin American cases,” he said.
As the number of Latin American M.B.A. students in Spain rises, so too does the number who say they plan to return to Latin America after graduation, said Javier Muñoz, who runs M.B.A. career services at IESE. With business in much of Latin America booming, “there are a lot more opportunities in Latin America,” he said.
Xavier Gimbert, recently appointed to oversee Latin American programs and initiatives at Esade, agrees. Citing Colombia as an example, he said qualified M.B.A.s were more sought after than ever before as countries in the region opened up to big Latin American-based multinational companies.
“If you compare Colombia with five or 10 years ago, it is another country,” he said. At IE — another prestigious Spanish business school, based in Madrid — Latin Americans make up about 22 percent of the current student population.
With the exception of those from Venezuela and Argentina, many of whom hope to stay in Europe, most say they hope to parlay their degrees into Latin American careers. The numbers rise as high as 95 percent among Brazilian students and 97 percent among Peruvians, according to IE student polls. This is a marked change from just a decade ago, according to several experts.
“Ten years ago, during the Spanish boom years, many Latin Americans came to study and to stay here,” said Gonzálo Garland, the vice president for external relations at IE. Now, said Carlos García Pont, second-year M.B.A. academic director at IESE, “there has been an opening in interest because Peru, Brazil and Chile have increased their economic standing in the world.”
The schools note that their connections to the region are not new: They have run Latin American offices, maintained links with the region’s universities and co-taught courses for decades. These longstanding links are among the reasons why Ms. Fratini thinks her degree will be valued on the Brazilian job market.
“I felt like the companies I’ve been speaking to are aware what an Esade M.B.A. means,” she said after talking with potential employers in Brazil. In October, IESE joined with the French business school Insead and the London Business School to bring big Latin American employers to their campus for a two-day Latin American job fair.
It was at a similar career fair organized by Esade in Barcelona last year that Ms. Fratini found a summer internship with Votorantim, a multinational industrial and financial group based in Brazil. Another advantage of Spanish schools is the strength of their Latin American alumni networks.
“I was looking for four things: academics, a strong network in Latin America, career development opportunity and to get a job in the region,” said Mr. Vera, who came to IESE in Barcelona last year and expects to graduate in May.
Mr. Vera, who considered pursuing an M.B.A. in the United States, said that another argument for IESE was its network in his home country: “I saw that IESE were very committed to Chile,” he said.
Beside professional reasons for getting a Spanish M.B.A., Ms. Fratini also said life for a Latin American in Spain was easier than in other European countries.
“We can relate to the culture and the people here,” she said. Still, the prime factor was what a Spanish degree would do for her when she went home, she said: “It definitely helps me leverage my future plans in Brazil.”
nytimes.com
Like a growing number of Latin Americans over the past decade, Ms. Fratini, who already has an undergraduate economics degree from Pennsylvania State University, opted to start her re-entry by earning an M.B.A. in Spain.
She applied to the Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas, or Esade, a top business school based in Barcelona, and was accepted, starting classes last year.
“I really feel like I made the right decision to come to Europe because the whole educational system — the interaction with the professors, the interaction with the students — is so much more similar to the way that business is done in South America than what I was exposed to in the U.S.,” she said in a phone interview this month.
Despite the fact that Spain’s economy is still flagging, its business schools say they are increasingly attracting Latin American students, often with international career experience, who plan to return to Latin America after they graduate.
They see in Spanish classrooms more diversity than in the United States and a business culture nearer their own. Spanish business schools, several of them highly ranked in global lists, are responding to the demand by building ever closer ties with the Latin American region and by making Spanish class time more widely accessible.
Esade, where some 19 percent of this year’s graduating class hails from Latin America, has just started a study program called Doing Business in Latin America.
To better accommodate students who will be working chiefly in a Spanish business environment, the school’s general M.B.A. program — until now taught in English — will offer a full-time Spanish course, starting next year.
IESE, another top-ranked school based in Barcelona, where this year 15 percent of students are from Latin America, started offering an executive M.B.A. in São Paolo, Brazil, in August 2012, offering courses for business professionals from Brazil and neighboring countries in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Major reasons for the renewed interest in Spanish schools include existing economic ties, a shared business culture and, for many Latin Americans, a shared language. Sergio Vera, a Chilean M.B.A. student at IESE, said his course material often focused on Latin American examples: “That’s the thing about the Spanish business environment: There are a lot of Latin American cases,” he said.
As the number of Latin American M.B.A. students in Spain rises, so too does the number who say they plan to return to Latin America after graduation, said Javier Muñoz, who runs M.B.A. career services at IESE. With business in much of Latin America booming, “there are a lot more opportunities in Latin America,” he said.
Xavier Gimbert, recently appointed to oversee Latin American programs and initiatives at Esade, agrees. Citing Colombia as an example, he said qualified M.B.A.s were more sought after than ever before as countries in the region opened up to big Latin American-based multinational companies.
“If you compare Colombia with five or 10 years ago, it is another country,” he said. At IE — another prestigious Spanish business school, based in Madrid — Latin Americans make up about 22 percent of the current student population.
With the exception of those from Venezuela and Argentina, many of whom hope to stay in Europe, most say they hope to parlay their degrees into Latin American careers. The numbers rise as high as 95 percent among Brazilian students and 97 percent among Peruvians, according to IE student polls. This is a marked change from just a decade ago, according to several experts.
“Ten years ago, during the Spanish boom years, many Latin Americans came to study and to stay here,” said Gonzálo Garland, the vice president for external relations at IE. Now, said Carlos García Pont, second-year M.B.A. academic director at IESE, “there has been an opening in interest because Peru, Brazil and Chile have increased their economic standing in the world.”
The schools note that their connections to the region are not new: They have run Latin American offices, maintained links with the region’s universities and co-taught courses for decades. These longstanding links are among the reasons why Ms. Fratini thinks her degree will be valued on the Brazilian job market.
“I felt like the companies I’ve been speaking to are aware what an Esade M.B.A. means,” she said after talking with potential employers in Brazil. In October, IESE joined with the French business school Insead and the London Business School to bring big Latin American employers to their campus for a two-day Latin American job fair.
It was at a similar career fair organized by Esade in Barcelona last year that Ms. Fratini found a summer internship with Votorantim, a multinational industrial and financial group based in Brazil. Another advantage of Spanish schools is the strength of their Latin American alumni networks.
“I was looking for four things: academics, a strong network in Latin America, career development opportunity and to get a job in the region,” said Mr. Vera, who came to IESE in Barcelona last year and expects to graduate in May.
Mr. Vera, who considered pursuing an M.B.A. in the United States, said that another argument for IESE was its network in his home country: “I saw that IESE were very committed to Chile,” he said.
Beside professional reasons for getting a Spanish M.B.A., Ms. Fratini also said life for a Latin American in Spain was easier than in other European countries.
“We can relate to the culture and the people here,” she said. Still, the prime factor was what a Spanish degree would do for her when she went home, she said: “It definitely helps me leverage my future plans in Brazil.”
nytimes.com
No comments:
Post a Comment