New UAB online bachelor’s program addresses rising demand for distribution professionals

A flexible, 100 percent online-based program will blend engineering and business curricula to prepare students for the growing industrial distribution industry.
Written by: Katherine Shonesy
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industrial distributionThe University of Alabama at Birmingham is expanding its online course offerings within the Collat School of Business through a counterpart for its campus-based Charles and Patsy Collat Industrial Distribution program.

The degree — which is ideal for students seeking to distinguish themselves with one of the few joint engineering and business programs in the world — is now available in a flexible, 100 percent online format.

As the latest addition to UAB’s suite of business-focused degrees, the online bachelor’s in industrial distribution program is now accepting students for the fall 2016 term.

“For the past 25 years, our industrial distribution program has been enormously successful in placing students in high-demand, business-to-business management and technical sales positions in the health care and engineering fields,” said Thomas DeCarlo, Ph.D., the program’s director. “We’re proud to be one of a few business schools in the world to offer this highly specialized program, and we’re thrilled to now be able to provide it online.”

Offered through UAB’s AACSB-accredited Collat School of Business, the online industrial distribution program blends business and engineering to help students gain an in-depth understanding of how goods are made and how they make it to market. Students can also choose a medical equipment and supplies distribution concentration, preparing them to evaluate and distribute medical supplies for the health care industry.

The distribution industry has more jobs available than there are trained professionals to fill them. Collat leadership recognized the demand for business people with a command of the channel of distribution for industrial and medical products.

Through offering this new online program, UAB is committing to help distribution professionals fill those needs with a program that is recognized by Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial startups alike.

Graduates of the online industrial distribution program can also benefit from the program’s high job placement rate, which is 100 percent annually, and qualify for competitive careers with national manufacturers and distributors in business, government and health care settings.

For more information about the online Bachelor of Science in Industrial Distribution program, visit businessdegrees.uab.edu/id-degree-bachelors.