I have friends who earned MBA's, typically through "executive" programs attached to major universities. Their training was being paid for, and they were looking

I have friends who earned MBA's, typically through "executive" programs attached to major universities. Their training was being paid for, and they were looking for the more prestigious programs. These programs did not accept students straight out of college, and so the people going into them already tend to have some business experience, and have already sorted themselves according to their math ability. They're already known to be diligent, organized, and satisfactorily literate. The ones who went in with strong math skills found the quantitative courses to be a breeze. Everybody learned accounting and finance principles, which are useful for being conversant in that language. They took a course in business communications, and came out with a fairly standardized approach to writing memoranda and reports. I think they learned how to write and critique a business plan. There were one or more courses on business law, including HR. I call these "hard" skills because they are technical in nature. I believe that these are all good skills for entry into middle management.