UTA Program Trains Students in Exporting with Experts
The University of Texas at Arlington – College of Business has announced a new program, Exporting with Experts, which will help to train students looking for experience in the exporting industry.
The program, which ran through March 5, was conducted as a series of four sessions of lectures and workshops with international business leaders. According to management professor Deepak Datta, the UTA program featured the highest enrollment of the Metroplex with 27 students.
International operations and logistics manager of CHRISTUS Health, Tony Scanio, who was also a guest speaker, spoke of the program’s value to students. “It’s taught entirely by professional international business people,” he said. “Each topic is covered by somebody who really knows that area, has experience in it and can give real-life examples and answer any kind of questions with real-life background on it, as opposed to the book answer.”
The program is offered as a collaboration between UTA and the North Texas District Export Council. Although the program does not offer university credit, students are able to obtain not only insight from the speakers, but possibly a certificate from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
As part of the program, students must choose an industry and company and develop a plan for exporting their product to a foreign market. This necessitates in-depth research about the company, industry, and target country’s marketplace.
“Exports is very important, not just from the perspective of the U.S. economy, but especially from the standpoint of Texas,” said Datta. Texas is currently the largest exporter of all other states in the U.S., and exporting alone supports more than a million jobs in the state.
Although this years’ program is now complete, there are plans to offer it every year. “We used to think that we could actually run a business just being focused on this little part of the world,” said Lawrence Howorth, a judge for the program, “…what I’ve learned is that that’s no longer true.”
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Alanna Shaffer
Staff Writer, covering MetroMBA's news beat for Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas.
