I am absolutely addicted to absorbing new knowledge. I love studying. I love learning about new ideas from other to include them into my own musings (with or without footnotes. I already have a M.Sc. in European Studies and just finished a Master in Quality Management. Which means I am currently not studying (officially) at all! Which naturally resulted into looking into new courses. This time something in the wake of Corporate Sustainability to round up my interest in innovation, quality and green ideas.

However, do I really need to take another course in order to develop this interest? The advantages for me are the following:

• A time table to stick to: the good thing about learning programs is that there is a strict time table and fixed dates when you have to finish one or another content. That way I am sure to not dwell on too many details, but get the big picture.
• A schedule for the chapters: I will be sure to receive a certain amount of information within a set schedule, covering the area of interest and giving information about sources wherever possible.
• Meeting people with similar interests: this is only true for semi-presencial programs, as I found out in my online enrollment for the Master in Quality Management that it is difficult to meet up with people if you don’t have a fixed schedule to meet anyway.
• An official recognition of my efforts. As the studies would end with a recognized title, it would be easy to proof my knowledge to prospective employers.

However, there are also some downsides to starting yet another Master program:

• University title collector. Having three titles on the same level does look a little weird. Should I go for the next level and start on a phd? My professors certainly would love to see that, but I am not sure if I want to commit myself for 3-5 years to one single topic. Plus, would a phd title do me any good in the industry?
• Financial considerations. In Spain the post-graduate education is not for free, so I would have to pay a substantial sum. I might want to venture into self-hosted learning to avoid the payments.
• Quality concerns. Once subscribed to a program, I cannot change again, even if I am not too convinced about the learning material. Call me indecisive, but I have a hard time to figure out which school is the absolutely best one around.

Or perhaps I should invest in getting my Catalan straight once for all? After all, if I pretend to stay in Catalonia I should at least get the language to a fluent level…

• learnings
• quality