These programs are generally non-credit and non-degree-granting, but sometimes lead to certificates, and some offer continuing education units accepted by professional bodies and institutes.
Customized programs, which are tailored for and offered to executives of a single company, represent the fastest-growing segment of the market.
[3] Open enrollment programs are also available as part of university-based executive education offerings, which occur throughout the year on selected dates, and are available to participants from different companies and organizations.
[4] On the heels of Taylorism came The Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, which in 1914, began offering Course XV, Engineering Administration, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
At that time, the concept of providing business training in the academic environment was gaining popularity, thus MIT created a program “specially designed to train men to be competent managers of businesses that have much to do with engineering problems.” Harvard also began offering short five-week selections of standard MBA material in the late 1920s.
The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 — commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights — allowed veterans to take advantage of education benefits.
The science of business also was developing at a rapid pace as faculty, such as Michael Porter (Harvard ) and C. K. Prahalad (University of Michigan), published academic papers that changed the way people thought and acted within companies.
These and other respected academic business thinkers — Don Hambrick, Ram Charan, David Ulrich, Michael Hammer, Gary Hamel and many others — are the true pioneers of executive education and the ongoing effort to facilitate wealth creation and other new concepts aimed at making stronger businesses while improving the welfare of the world.
The industry's exclusive professional association, The International University Consortium for Executive Education,[9] also came into existence during this period.
UNICON began sponsoring a tradeshow in the 1970s for companies interested in learning about university-based executive education and an annual conference for members.
[citation needed] Despite the growing popularity of university-based executive education around the world, the global economic recession has slowed the industry's growth during the past few years.
[citation needed] A substantial portion of the organizations surveyed by Manchester Business School said they anticipate executive education spending to moderately increase during the next three years.