Progress continues in IPST’s collaboration with Georgia Tech Professional Education to develop an online professional master’s degree in manufacturing leadership.  This is a unique degree program designed to prepare promising engineers with 3-5 years’ experience for advancement in manufacturing leadership and management positions.  The four-quadrant program combines advanced technical education in an elective manufacturing field with three core components in business and finance, manufacturing excellence, and leadership—four areas critical to the rising professional in the manufacturing environment.

Recent marketing studies suggest that there is enthusiastic demand among company manufacturing executives for candidates with such preparation.  Because the program would mostly be conveyed in an online format, students would be able to continue their employment while enrolled.  This design is intended to facilitate students’ bringing their real-world experience to the program, and gaining insights and approaches to challenges they are facing in their jobs.  As one young engineer surveyed put it, “This would be so much more useful to me than a traditional MBA, because it’s designed around manufacturing.”

The degree development team, led by GTPE director Leo Mark and IPST director Norman Marsolan, expects to have a proposal to the Georgia Board of Regents in 2014.