Due to the demand for a graduate human resource management education, human resource management schools and programs can be found all over the world along with companies looking to hire individuals with this advanced training. A masters program in human resource management is designed to provide you with additional higher-level skills and training in a specialty concentration that you would not receive with a bachelor’s program. Many companies recognize these accredited graduate programs and understand that future hires with an advanced degree have a higher level of training and the ability to typically manage a team of professionals.
*Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Human Resource Managers, on the Internet at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes113121.htm (visited March 24, 2022).
What you need to understand about online or campus learning is that the amount of time it takes to complete courses entirely depends on your commitment to studying.
A typical master’s degree requires 36 to 54 credits to complete the program, which can take around 2 years for full-time students. Students need to have already earned a bachelor's degree and could complete this within 2 years depending on the amount of courses and classes they take each semester. Online training usually takes 2 years but can take up to 3 years since most students only study part-time. In fact, most online schools have a time limit to complete programs, where they give you 5 years to complete the program and if you don’t finish in that time you will lose credits earned toward your degree.
Another example is studying for a master’s degree full-time on campus can take 18 months to complete, where studying online for the same course can take 2 to 3 years depending on how many courses you complete each semester. However, you should also be aware that, if you devote more time to studying than most on-campus students; if you complete courses during the summer and maintain a full course load each year, you will be able to finish your degree in less than 2 years.
Before choosing a major there are some important facts you should know about.
Human Resource Management is a wide-ranging field with many different specialties. If you have a specific career you are hoping to enter, make sure the school either offers a major in that field or a variety of classes pertaining to your field of interest. You may be able to find employment information for graduating students, which can show you how many students were able to enter the human resources manager career you’re looking at upon graduation.
This is a very important question to ask yourself. Your major should play a big part in the schools you are considering. Not every college may offer the major of your choice, so doing your homework is the first step of the selection process.
The two most prominent types of master levels in human resource management are: Master of Arts degree (MA degree) in human resource management and a Master of Science degree (MS degree) in human resource management. A MA degree normally requires pupils to take fewer concentration courses as well as to focus more on discovering about human resource management. These students have a little bit more flexibility when it pertains to customizing their education to meet their occupation objectives as well as goals.
The Master of Science degree in human resource management, on the other hand, is much less concentrated on exploration and even more targeted to a specific focus. Master of Science students, usually, focus specifically on the area of their major and have a tendency to be more career focused. Master’s degrees in the clinical field, for example, are most likely to be a Master of Science degree. You can find some sample classes for a graduate below:
These days fewer and fewer students graduate in two years. In fact, the government now sets the bar at a three-year term from starting an advanced graduate program to completion. Accredited masters programs in human resource management, on the other hand, are more likely to graduate in 18 months to 2 1/2 years. That is because those programs are more competitive, and studies have shown that students in highly competitive programs have more success with graduating in two years (or less.) Keep it mind there are also other determining factors that play a role in how long it takes to graduate like full time vs part time, funding for college, working at the same time (can potentially decrease how many credit hours you can take) etc. A good goal to shoot for is to graduate within 2 to 3 years.
Accreditation is an important part of selecting a school for human resource management graduate education. Much depends on accreditation and the type of accreditation. There are two main types of accreditation; regional and national. Regional accreditation agencies work with research-based schools, private schools, public schools, and some for-profit schools. National accreditation works primarily with for-profit and career-related education.
Regional Accreditation
There are two types of regional accreditation; they are human resource management program accreditation and institutional accreditation. Institutional accreditation uses a group of states as the base to compare the school with other colleges and universities; the group of states comprises the region assigned by the Department of Education.
Programmatic Accreditation looks at specific programs or parts of a college or university. This type of accreditation has the same type of respect and acceptance as regional accreditation for institutions. Regional employers and other educational institutions regard regional accreditation as proof of high-quality education.
National Accreditation
National accreditation has a Faith-based branch and a career- related education branch. Faith-based institutions have a different set of standards that recognize the role of faith in instruction. The for-profit branch of national accreditation covers the special purpose and non-traditional schools such as vocational schools. The career-related education requires standards that place appropriate weight on general knowledge and education. Some regionally accredited schools do not accept credits from career-related schools.
Did you know that your salary is not always just based on what level of degree you received, but it also could be based on what school you attended? Many employers actually have their own rankings and rating systems of schools. That is to say, if you received your degree from a college that was accredited by a low rated agency, your salary may actually be decreased by a certain percentage where a high-ranked, well-known, accredited school, can raise that mark significantly.
If you are going to spend a lot of time and energy to attain an doctorate human resource management degree, you will certainly want some job placement assistance as you near graduation. Discuss this with your admissions counselor when you are considering the right program. In fact, you might want to broaden that discussion by asking about how your school handles internships and if co-op programs are available. Experiential learning can help you not only gain the skills needed to land a job, but you can also cultivate a professional network that will help you build the career you deserve.
