LinkedIn Learning courses that will prepare you for an MBA

The benefits of an MBA are well documented — graduates report that their degree has helped them to achieve a promotion, expand their area of expertise, equip them with the skills to start their own business, improve their professional contacts, and even boost their confidence. Despite these benefits, acquiring an MBA is a huge financial and time investment, which makes it essential that you do what you can prior to enrolling to ensure your success. 

While you may have brushed up your knowledge and skills while preparing for the GMAT, additional courses can supplement your learning and improve your chances of excelling in your MBA programme. Luckily, there are ample of online resources that can help you to improve your chances of excelling. These include e-learning platforms such as LinkedIn Learning, which serve as a convenient solution for those who wish to develop more skills. 

While platforms such as Coursera or edX have become household names, LinkedIn Learning has also solidified itself as a strong contender for those looking to brush up on their skills and knowledge. The platform consistently produces quality content that is interactive, relevant, affordable, and most importantly – accessible. 

If you’re looking for some LinkedIn Learning courses that could prove useful in your MBA journey, here are eight worth exploring:

Corporate Finance: Robust Financial Modeling

If you’re planning to pursue an MBA with a finance specialisation to help you carve a career managing an organisation’s financial and investment decisions, finance-related courses will come in handy.

With this course, delivered by Joshua Rischin, company director of Axium Solutions – anyone can gain a better understanding of financial modeling. This will prove useful as many MBA programmes include some form of finance modules.

Getting Things Done

As an MBA student, you can expect to juggle multiple things. Be it your job or internship or the exams you need to study for, time management is essential to anyone’s success.

The Getting Things Done course – taught on LinkedIn Learning by world-renowned productivity and time management expert, David Allen – is an excellent choice to help you get started.

Excel Essential Training

Whether you’re an employee or a business owner, Excel has become an indispensable tool for completing tasks such as tracking assets, income, debt and net worth. This makes it a useful skill for aspiring MBA students to upskill in.

The two-hour long Excel Essential Training course equips future MBAs with essential beginner and intermediate excel knowledge.  

The programme is available for Mac and Office, and is delivered by Dennis Taylor, a spreadsheet expert who has written multiple books and given more than 500 webinars on Excel. 

Project Management Foundations 

Whether you wish to become a project manager or not, it’s likely you will need to work on both group and solo projects during your business school experience.

Delivered by Bonnie Biafore, a project management consultant and author with over 20 years of experience in the industry – this programme dives into the fundamentals, teaching participants to establish goals, develop plans, and stay on top of workloads.  

Develop Your Communication Skills and Interpersonal Influence

Every business professional needs to master the art of communicating clearly and confidently.

With this programme – that can be completed in under eight hours – you will learn to clearly convert information and ideas in an engaging manner.

Strategic Thinking 

MBA programmes frequently emphasise management and leadership skills – usually through classes in business strategy and strategic decision making. This course will help you develop the skills you’ll need to lead with authority and confidence.

Learning Python

Top MBA employers such as Apple, Oracle, and Deloitte all list python as one of the fastest growing skills they look for in both employees and applicants. That said, all future MBAs can benefit from the beginner-friendly Learning Python course. This programme is taught by Joe Marini, a senior developer advocate at Google.

Improving Your Listening Skills

In this programme — taught by Dorie Clark, a business professor at Duke Fuqua and Columbia – participants will learn to stop themselves before interrupting others; and develop the skills of a good listener who hears what is being said, as well as what isn’t.