How An Online Undergraduate Business Degree Can Boost Your Career

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Earning a business degree can add significant value to your resume and certainly help you to boost your career. Earlier, studying business was limited only to those individuals who were willing to invest sufficient money and time to attend regular scheduled lectures on campus at a B-school or university. However, with the advent of online distance learning, the business education scenario has been transform drastically.

Online Business Diploma – Have A Lucrative Career

You can easily choose to study an undergraduate management programme without the need for attending lectures in traditional classrooms. You simply need to be self-disciplined and self-motivated to study at your own convenience from a laptop with a reliable internet connection. Moreover you will have the option to choose from a variety of business and management related courses to earn an accredited diploma in management online.

Currently, the demand for online business education has been growing exponentially worldwide as it helps you to progress your career. You will not only acquire the necessary leadership and management skills, but you will also develop essential soft skills that will improve your performance at the workplace. Your business knowledge will allow you to develop effective strategies by using excellent business tools.

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Gaining Practical Experience

Moreover, with the help of an online level 5 diploma in business management you will be able to gain expertise over theoretical and practical aspects of business management. How? As most online management programmes do not have any fixed or scheduled classes, you can choose to study whenever you want, from wherever you want. Hence you can opt to gain practical work experience by doing a full-time or part-time job in a relevant field. You will have the flexibility to plan your day in such a way that can you can do your job during the day and focus on your coursework at night. This will allow you to immediately apply what you learn at the workplace and further hone your skills.

Pursuing Higher Education

Furthermore, the skills and knowledge you gain during your undergraduate diploma in management online study will help you to pursue higher studies and even go for an online MBA programme in future. Nigel Pye, Assistant Dean of distance learning MBA at the Warwick Business School says “We require students to have four years' management experience. That makes the youngest in their early to mid-twenties but we have them from all age groups, with the typical student in their late twenties.”

Hence the work experience you gain while studying your online Level 5 programme will help you to earn an accredited online MBA degree from recognised schools in future. Mr. Pye believes that online business education can certainly prove to be highly beneficial for learners. He adds “It gives you a brand new skill: that is, managing a virtual team. Students are split into teams for group assignments and the skill of managing a remote team where you may have little if any face to face contact with members is such an important tool in today's business world.”

The Preferred Mode Of Learning 

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As you can clearly see, online education has become the preferred mode of achieving prowess in business education  for most students, educators and even employers worldwide with growing number of companies now accepting online level 5 and level 7 management diplomas. Hence an undergraduate business diploma can not only help you to build your career and enable you to climb the success ladder, but it also paves the way for further education in an affordable and accessible manner.

Seoposengwe Galeeme from Botswana, who completed an online business programme from Leeds Metropolitan University, says that online business education programmes offer “a flexible schedule that fits nicely with my work and family life; and despite the birth of my daughter I haven't missed a class. I am already seeing the benefits of the course by applying what I've learnt in my workplace and I've seen big improvements in my business performance.”

What do you think about online management diplomas? Share your views with us by commenting in the box below. We would love to hear from you.

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Hospitality Management - Will It Be The Career You Are Looking For

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Do you want to build a successful and rewarding career? Are you looking for a career that allows you to meet different people and explore new ideas and environments? Then a career in the hotel and hospitality industry will be right for you.

Hospitality Management Career – As Lucrative As It Seems

The hotel and hospitality management sector has been booming constantly since the last few years. Currently, you can find a wide range of job opportunities in this sector, provided you have the right skills and knowledge. If you ask me, pursuing a hotel management programme is a great way to acquire required skills like leadership, management, communication skills, organizing events, catering etc.

You will also get the opportunity to learn business and people skills that will significantly increase your performance and employability. But the fact is studying full time hospitality management courses means you will need to invest a lot of time and money. Hence if you wish to earn a hotel management degree or diploma which will be affordable and flexible, then I would suggest that you study online. Your qualification will make sure that you make a great start to a lucrative career in the hospitality industry.

Here I am going to talk about some great reasons why a career in hotel management can be beneficial for you....

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 Great Job Opportunities

A hotel management career will provide you a wide array of employment opportunities in a number of fields. Moreover, as the sector has an international outlook, you will also be able to get placement opportunities in various parts of the world. You can find jobs in rental agencies, cruise ships, casinos, restaurants, hotels etc.

No Fixed Routine

Tired of the same old 9-5 routine? If you want a career that allows you to do creative and satisfying work with excellent flexibility, then a career in this sector will meet your exact needs. You can develop various transferable skills and gain expertise in different tasks.

Excellent Prospects

Let’s face it....in today’s world everyone needs to travel, look for accommodation, eat and drink. Hence you can be rest assured that this industry will remain stable, even during the next financial crisis.

Be Creative 

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Want to show your creativity at work? Unlike other careers, the hospitality management sector enables you to demonstrate your creative side. You can create excellent entree, main course and side dishes. Or can you can choose to plan an exciting vacation experience for your clients. You will get to think outside the box and develop innovative ideas.

What Do You Think?

There are many other benefits of building a career in the hospitality management industry other than the ones I mentioned above. So I would suggest that you start pursuing an online hotel management programme right now. After completing diploma in hospitality management you will be able to start a lucrative career in this sector and improve your future prospects.

What are you thinking? Are you planning to pursue an online hospitality management course? Feel free to share your thoughts and views with me. I would love to hear from you.

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The “Four Year Myth” Study: How Long Will It Take To Earn A Degree?

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According to a recent report, an Indianapolis-based non-profit Complete College America conducted a study titled the “Four Year Myth” which revealed that most of the students at US public colleges fail to complete their graduation in time.

The 4 Year College Degree Myth

The report states that nowadays both parents and students understand that time is money. The study claims that the current American higher education system is highly expensive and it requires too much time to achieve results. Moreover, only few students end up graduating, according to Tamar Lewin of The New York Times. At present, most public colleges and universities experience merely 19 per cent full time students pursuing bachelor’s degree actually acquire their qualifications in 4 years. Almost 36 per cent full time students at research-intensive institutes and state universities earn their bachelor’s degrees within the scheduled time.

Throughout the country there are only 50 out of the almost 580 public 4 year schools that can claim most full time students acquire their bachelor’s degrees in 4 years time. Several factors have contributed to this scenario such as the lack of ability to register for a required course, remediation programmes and credits lost while to transferring from a different school. In fact the figures in community colleges are even bad. You will find that merely 5 per cent of full-time students achieve associate degrees in the traditional 2 year period; and merely 15.9 percent actually earn 1-2-year certificate on a normal cycle.

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 Earning A Degree On Time

The dilemma has become so prevalent that now academic experts and education policy makers consider 6 years as a standard to acquire a bachelor’s degree and 3 years for an associate degree. The “Four Year Myth” stated “Using these metrics may improve the numbers, but it is costing students and their parents billions of extra dollars — $15,933 more in cost of attendance for every extra year of a public two-year college and $22,826 for every extra year at a public four-year college.”

It added “Hands down, our best strategy to make college more affordable and a sure way to boost graduation rates over all is to ensure that many more students graduate on time.” The report also mentioned that every year around 1.7 million students pursue their higher education studies requiring remediation. This includes a large number of community college students as well. According to the data only one in ten remedial students successfully graduates.

Time Is Money 

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Around 60 per cent of all bachelor’s degree graduates transfer from one institute to another one which results in losing few of their credits. The number of options for college courses is one more reason for the extended college stays. There is a lack of counselors who would help graduates through the high volumes of possibilities and options and guide them through the educational course. Moreover, spending more time on college also results in higher student debt.

Students also miss out on opportunities for earning wages. According to Complete College America, lost wages amounts to $45,327 for students pursuing bachelor’s programmes and $35,000 for students pursuing associate degrees. According to reports from CNN, over 40 million US students are burdened with an average debt of $29,000 which totals to $1.2 trillion.

What do you think about the 4 year degree? Want to share your own opinions and views? Then feel free to comment below. We would love to hear from you.

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Business Education Gearing Up To Face Future Challenges

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As more and more technological innovations are introduced, traditional classroom-based models of business education are getting disrupted. A new study titled See the Future, suggests that with the growing popularity of online programmes and MOOCs, increasing tuition fees in colleges, demanding needs of employers and strong market competition, traditional education approaches face a severe challenge.

Looking At The Future Of Business Education

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The research was done by B-school consultant and education market research establishment CarringtonCrisp, in association with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). See the Future has gathered opinions from CEOs, chairmen, employers and even Directors and Deans at B-schools from more than 63 nations.

The study found that colleges and business schools face four main challenges, namely technology, staffing problems, market competition and costs. Hence, almost all institutions feel the compulsion to re-evaluate their courses and curriculum. Why? As there is a strong move to a multidisciplinary way of learning and a growing need to fulfill the demands of students and businesses, business schools have realized that it is time to reconsider their offerings. The research also discovered that lifelong learning will keep being significant for students, but due to technological progress, lifestyle learning will also become important.

Increasing Demand For Online Study

 Businesses and employers need training and development programmes that are fast, cheap and highly effective and which offer excellent value for money. The study discovered that these employers are increasingly accepting more online diplomas and degrees mainly because it does not require accommodation and travel expenses. See the Future found that even though online education was well accepted, but almost 80 per cent respondents claimed that “Executive education for senior managers and directors will remain face to face.” Alan Hatfield, ACCA director of learning, said “Anytime, anywhere learning is on the rise, providing students with the flexibility to learn at their own pace and around their other commitments such as work and family.”

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Author of the study, Andrew Crisp, said “This situation is not a perfect storm, but the Dean who sticks their

head in the sand and fails to think about how best to position their school for the future risks their school and its students being left behind.”

Hatfield added “When they hire new talent, employers believe a professional qualification is essential or desired. As a professional body, ACCA is committed to business education - working with universities, MOOC providers and business schools around the world, we aim to ensure the future of business education remains relevant and valued.”

Providing “Rounded Education”

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CEO and DG at EFMD, Eric Cornuel, said “It has been clear for many years that the pace of change in business education is accelerating. Understanding the drivers of change and the demands of those seeking to learn in the future are key to our member schools delivering effective solutions. More and more, our members recognize the need for business to be studied in a wider context, to see the impact it has on society.”

He concluded by saying “To this end, there is a growing need for business schools to work with other faculties, departments and experts throughout universities and beyond to ensure students receive a rounded education.”

How are technology and other factors changing traditional business education? Say what you fee by sharing your thoughts and comments below. We would love to hear from you.

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Traditional And Online Education: Finding The Right Balance

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Many students aspiring to pursue higher education wonder whether they should go for traditional on-campus learning or online learning. However, the question is not about choosing between online or on-campus learning, when we focus on making higher education widely available and more affordable. It is about how much we need to use among both options.

Online Or On-Campus

This was one of main issues discussed by a panel on college affordability and access at a National Education Week “Thought Leader Summit”. As online courses and competency-based qualifications are becoming more popular in the higher education sphere, now students need to determine whether the campus experience, including fraternities, football, friends and other experiences are worth the huge amounts of

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money than the far more affordable alternatives, suggested one of the panelists.

Phil Bronner, co-founder and CEO of Quad Learning, said “For traditional schools, the cost of those institutions is not going to change in the short term.” He added “Because of health care and other things, the price will go up. The only way a parent or a student can get a lower cost is to transfer in lower cost credits.”

Finding A Balance

Bronner believes that in future our students will keep earning degrees from conventional colleges and universities; however those learners will end up spending much less time than at brick-and-mortar colleges than before.

According to Burck Smith, founder and CEO of Straighterline, more needs be done in order to assist our students realize the real price of earning a degree. Smith said, “If you think about how many ways we—the country and higher education—have to confuse what the actual price is, it’s really sort of astounding. You’ve got the list price, net price, scholarships and discounts … not to mention what kind of loan terms or what kind of Pell grant you get, whether the loans are dischargeable or not.”

About the planned college rating system of the Obama administration, which aims to support future college students take informed decisions regarding which institution to attend, Smith said “It’s almost impossible to know what you’ll be paying. Until you can actually make the price clear, ratings aren’t going to do much.”

Focusing On Competency-Based Learning 

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Chris Etesse, CEO of the online course material providing company Flat World Knowledge, propagated the importance of competency-based education. It allows learners to study at their own pace over online courses which simply “map back” to courses with credit-hours and meet at particular periods.

Competency-based learning allows students, especially adult learners with work and family commitments, to study while in transit or during lunch hours or whenever they get free time to do coursework. Etesse said “That’s where we’re going to get the benefit … when we allow students to learn the way they act in real life.”

What do you think? Share your views and opinions with us by commenting below. We would love to hear from you.

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Online Business Diploma - A New Rostrum For Entrepreneurs

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Do you aspire to become an entrepreneur? But do you need business education to become one? This question seems to be the in the mind of most individuals planning to start their own business. Read on to learn more....

Does Business Study Make You A Better Entrepreneur?

I have come across a number of new entrepreneurs who were extremely passionate about their business. However, none of them had the same educational background. While some had high school diplomas and bachelor's degrees, others had Level 5 diploma and even MBAs. When it comes to entrepreneurship and education, there is no fixed formula regarding your degree. However, I have seen that having a management diploma can work wonders for your business. I do believe that there is growing need for equipping our entrepreneurs with business education to cope with the ever-increasing challenges of the corporate world.

Can You Learn Entrepreneurship? 

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You can find a number of Level 5 and Level 7 business programmes from various reputed universities across the world. But can you learn entrepreneurship in a classroom? Or is it better to learn on the job? Caroline Daniels, professor at Babson College, says “Entrepreneurship can be taught. But passion for an idea, for the opportunity, has to come from the entrepreneur.”

Education experts argue that pursuing a business programme like Level 5 diploma in management will enable you to recognize opportunities and design effective business models. However, many believe that business education must not remain confined to the classroom. Chris Guillebeau, author of New York Times Best-Seller ‘The $100 Startup’, says “You might as well learn as much as you can from as many sources as you can. Experience may indeed be the best teacher, but you can certainly supplement that education with more traditional or non-traditional kinds.”

So if you want to gain some experience in your chosen field and still pursue business studies, then one of the best options is to go for an online business programme. Online undergraduate diploma programmes offer you excellent flexibility so that you can gain significant work experience and yet study business management at your own pace.

The truth is business education will open doors to new entrepreneurial opportunities. Michael Karnjanaprakorn, the CEO of Skillshare, says “My graduate degree from the VCU Brandcenter really shaped the way I think around creativity, innovation and disrupting the status quo. It's made me a better entrepreneur because it allowed me to view the world in a different way, which led to the creation of my company.”

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 Is A Business Diploma Worth It?

Karnjanaprakorn adds “College isn't 100 percent evil like most people are playing it out to be. I think the timing is different for every entrepreneur. Some start companies at 18, and others at 28 like myself.”

However, with rising college tuition and growing student debt, pursuing traditional education programmes can become challenging, especially for aspiring entrepreneurs. This is where online undergraduate diploma in management comes in. As these programmes are more than affordable, you don’t need to spend too much money or time on your education. Instead you can effectively invest the money in your start-up and build your business.

Should You Study Business?

To be honest, the answer depends on a lot of factors. Pursuing a business degree from a reputed B-school requires a significant amount of investment. I believe that it is much better to study online as you can not only save money, but you can also gain relevant experience while you study. Karnjanaprakorn concludes by saying “There are certain things that can be taught, frameworks, concepts, etc...But the only way to learn about entrepreneurship is by doing it.”

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 Do you believe you can be a better entrepreneur by studying business? Share your thoughts with us by commenting below. We would love to hear from you.

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Higher Education Trends: What Surprises Are Waiting For Our Teachers And Students?

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The education sector has changed considerably in the last few years with the introduction of various advanced learning tools. Although there are still some challenges that create some resistance to change, experts believe that a number of higher education trends will soon emerge which will effectively modify the entire education system worldwide.

Education experts claim that the way colleges and governments associate or collaborate with one another will change drastically in the coming future. Moreover our society will also undergo a tremendous transformation and shift focus to an information society from an industrial society. I believe that globalization will also gain further ground in the academic sector. Furthermore, other remarkable trends will also arise from the entry of business organizations.

Here I have listed some of the foremost education trends predicted by the industry experts-

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Departure From A Rigid Learning System

Educationists forecast that we will observe a striking diversification and expansion in the higher education system in the near future. This means the existing rigid system will cease to exist and a more flexible and efficient system will be adopted to provide the needed education.

Assortment Of Educational Institutions

If you ask me, in the near future only 3 types of institutions will take the lead: the brick and mortar classrooms, the online classroom and the hybrid classroom. What does it mean? Although traditional classrooms will continue to exist in the future, but online educational institutes along with classrooms that use the blended learning approach will also take center stage.

Customized Education

Presently, the educators and the schools decide what our students will learn. But experts claim that in the coming years the power will shift from the hands of the teachers to the hands of the learners. Our students will take charge and decide what they need to learn for their development, which course modules should be included and other aspects related to their higher education.

Focus on Learning 

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Till now, our education system has focused on the process of teaching with sheer dedication and on the time needed to complete a course. But now, as things are set to change, the focus is gradually shifting towards learning. According to the upcoming higher education trends, time will become a suggestive variable in education while learning will become constant.

Unbundling Functions

Educators have strictly focused on specific functions of research, teaching and service for long. But now there is a strong need for unbundling the functions. Hence, now some of our educators can concentrate on research, while other teachers and graduate assistants can take care of teaching to develop an enhanced learning approach.

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Changing Value Of Degrees

For long, students were expected to earn and hold a college degree as it was considered of high value. However, this will change soon. Experts believe that in the near future, educational outcomes will be considered more valuable for students instead of degrees. Thus, the changing value of college degrees is undoubtedly one of the fastest emerging trends in higher education.

Did we miss anything? Would like to add some more higher education trends to the list? Then simply comment below and add to the discussion.

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