Balancing Home, School & Work - www.startjobhunt.com
A New York Times article published in October, 2006, reported that parents are spending more time with their children. According to the article, men have been conducting more housework, and greater numbers of working mothers have returned to the workforce to help support the family. The average age of marriage for a man is 27.1 and 25.3 for a woman (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). As the average age of marriage continues to rise, so does the percentage of married couples where both spouses continue to work. Two-income households represented 49.9% of all marriages in 1986, and that proportion increased to 54% in 2005 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). Parents are older, with more disposable income and are not willing to sacrifice time away from their families.
For working parents who wish to continue spending time with their families but want to return to school, online graduate programs offer the best options. The numbers of adult students enrolling in a masters program online continue to increase as technology affords parents the opportunity to study at home or at the office. Asynchronous courses all students to complete the coursework at any pace, allowing parents to put coursework aside in order to focus on domestic or work issues and emergencies.
Nearly 25% of all master’s degrees were awarded in the area of business, management, and marketing, and professionals with an MBA on average earned and continue to earn very competitive salaries (usually six figures). By earning an MBA online, parents will not need to worry about commuting or time away from the family, as well as ensuring job security and developing skills that can be directly applied to projects at work.
Some are still concerned about the quality of online-delivered programs, but they are growing in popularity, with many schools adopting the technology and offering more online-delivered educational programs. A recent study conducted by the Sloan Consortium reported that 18.2% more students took at least one online course in 2005 than in the previous year. 51% of those interviewed for the Sloan study said that they wanted at least half their educational program to be online, if not more. 19% of respondents said that wanted to earn their degree completely online. 62% of Chief Academic Officers believe that online course instruction is at least equal to, if not superior to, classroom learning.
An article published by the Wall Street Journal reported that women are less likely to continue on to a master’s degree program than men due to familial obligations. To increase female enrollment numbers, online business schools are marketing to working mothers in order to increase the number of female students in their B-school programs, and traditional business schools are developing online programs or are improving their online MBA program in order to meet the needs of today’s adults.
Balancing Home School And Work
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