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Building Sustainable Careers

The University of Manchester Middle East Centre in Dubai has designed a dynamic portfolio of part-time Master’s programmes for eligible working professionals in the Middle East

Sustainable Career Development

A transforming world is making new demands on companies and organisations and transforming the workplace. This brings its own challenges and opportunities but how best to design and develop a sustainable career in these turbulent times? Learning how to view the world and business differently in this emerging future is the key to gaining the confidence to pursue a personal career path. This means going back to the classroom.

The University of Manchester Middle East Centre in Dubai has designed a dynamic regional portfolio of part-time Master’s programmes specifically for eligible working professionals in the Middle East. The University now offers two part-time MBA options, MSc Financial Management, and MA Educational Leadership in Practice. A complementary executive education portfolio spans short courses and professional development programmes, delivered on campus in Manchester.

The flagship Manchester Global Part-time MBA programme continues to attract high quality candidates with the added benefit of attending elective workshops at any of the University’s five international centres. The latest intake (July 2023) of new students has brought a vast range of professional experience from industry and consulting. It’s a very diverse and international cohort with strong female representation and many of the new students joined on the basis of a personal recommendation and bring Master’s level education and senior leadership experience.

The MSc in Financial Management is a flexible Master's degree introducing the more sophisticated tools and techniques that finance practitioners regularly use in their profession. The programme is designed to help students transform their finance and business careers by developing their financial understanding, expertise and skills.

The MA Educational Leadership in Practice is a two-year programme suitable for qualified and experienced working educators, from class teachers to nursery/school/college managers, leaders and principals.

All the University’s programmes are led by visiting faculty from Manchester and are delivered through the flexible learning format offering working professionals all the agility, convenience and control of online self-study complemented by valuable face-to-face (or virtual/hybrid) workshops and course conferences hosted by the Middle East Centre in Dubai.

These provide the opportunity for students to develop their professional networks with peers, discuss experiences with fellow students working across the world in diverse professional environments, and to meet the academic team.

For working professionals looking to develop their knowledge, skills and confidence to progress their careers, these faculty-led courses are designed to equip them with the skills sought by organisations worldwide.

"In the UAE’s Year of Sustainability and as government and business focus increasingly on ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) and sustainability issues, many working professionals may be thinking about how to build and sustain a successful, rewarding and fulfilling career in a fast-changing and unpredictable world. The corporate ‘triple bottom line’ (people-profit-planet) could also apply to a successful career. A fulfilling career comes not only from income but also consideration for others (social responsibility) and the planet (supporting sustainable business practices and personal lifestyle). It’s never too late for working professionals to go back to the ‘classroom’ and make a commitment to lifelong learning." — Randa Bessiso, Middle East Director The University of Manchester.

"The Manchester Global MBA experience gave me the confidence to speak about contemporary business challenges, with thought provoking ideas and research, and the opportunity to apply these to real-world case studies and in my own company. It was a chance to collaborate with like-minded, motivated fellow students. It gets you thinking in new ways and it has set me up for success as my career develops.” — Tim Shelton, Global Product Owner, Arcadis.