- Original Poster
- #1
Hey guys,
I'm looking at doing a home learning course to boost my "academic" business skills. This is purely to give me a foundation from which to grow my skills using real experience! I just want to emphasise that I'm not trying to replace experience gained from actually running a business with a course, I just want a bit of knowledge behind me before I get cracking!
I'm also volunteering with a Limited Company business accountant (i.e. I'm helping him with the grunt work in return for him imparting a bit of his knowledge). He's teaching me the ins and outs of VAT returns and tax etc from his actual business side, and general advice on running a business too, from his experience of setting up.
I was just wondering if general opinion was that this course would give me a good overview of Business Administration (short of doing an MBA!). Are there any bits in the curriculum which are going to be particularly vital to me that I should concentrate on more?
The course curriculum is as below (edited down to remove the fluff!):
Level 3 Diploma in Business Administration
Unit 1 - Introduction to Business Administration
introduces modern concepts of business administration in the context of the global economy, working in the new digital age.
This Diploma course is intended to prepare you for further advancement in this field and specifically the Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree.
Unit 2 - Human Resource Management
This will particularly focus on managing people, resource utilization, stakeholder management, motivational skills, coaching and mentoring skills.
This course will provide a basic introduction to these functions and provide you with a background of the activities carried out. These will include:
An examination of group dynamics and team leadership, how to work with groups, leadership styles, leading by example and managing by objectives.
This section will be focused on the development of team based leadership skills. This means understanding aspects of "group dynamics" and the determination of optimization of results by both team based learning and participation in group activities. The course will consist of two main components:
Open discussion of leadership:
Modern methods of management accounting, effective management report writing, use of computers, problem solving and decision making.
Management Accounting is concerned with the provision of business accounting information to Managers within organizations:
Gain an appreciation of Planning, Organization and Control in the context of modern project management. The course will focus heavily on the applied use of PRINCE2.
Students will examine the skill sets adopted by the leading firms of management consultants. In particular focusing on methods of enquiry, scoping of assignments, stakeholder management, report writing, problem solving and decision making, management of risks, understanding the concept of value-added delivery.
Students will gain an appreciation of:
Tips for putting together visual presentations, public speaking, how to address people, how to gain audience participation and getting the best from people to assist in creating professional and effective presentations.
Unit 8 - Strategic Planning
Students will examine the concepts of strategic planning assignments, looking at aspects of alignment and integration to both Corporate Planning and Programme Management.
The student canexpect the following from this course:
This unit considers the forces that invoke organizational change, mergers and acquisitions, business process re-engineering, policy change, external change agents and how people deal with change.
The course will consider the three dimensions of leadership - Outcomes, Interests and Emotions.
Students will expect to gain the following:
In this section students will examine the new global village, the new administrator in the digital age, international business opportunities, dealing with different cultures and backgrounds, aspects of communication and management expectations within the international business scene.
Students will expect to derive the following skill sets or knowledge from this course:
I'm looking at doing a home learning course to boost my "academic" business skills. This is purely to give me a foundation from which to grow my skills using real experience! I just want to emphasise that I'm not trying to replace experience gained from actually running a business with a course, I just want a bit of knowledge behind me before I get cracking!
I'm also volunteering with a Limited Company business accountant (i.e. I'm helping him with the grunt work in return for him imparting a bit of his knowledge). He's teaching me the ins and outs of VAT returns and tax etc from his actual business side, and general advice on running a business too, from his experience of setting up.
I was just wondering if general opinion was that this course would give me a good overview of Business Administration (short of doing an MBA!). Are there any bits in the curriculum which are going to be particularly vital to me that I should concentrate on more?
The course curriculum is as below (edited down to remove the fluff!):
Level 3 Diploma in Business Administration
Unit 1 - Introduction to Business Administration
introduces modern concepts of business administration in the context of the global economy, working in the new digital age.
This Diploma course is intended to prepare you for further advancement in this field and specifically the Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree.
Unit 2 - Human Resource Management
This will particularly focus on managing people, resource utilization, stakeholder management, motivational skills, coaching and mentoring skills.
This course will provide a basic introduction to these functions and provide you with a background of the activities carried out. These will include:
- Aspects of leadership and motivation
- Oral and written communication
- Writing management reports
- Effective presentation writing
- Basic Computing skills
- Resource Planning activities
- Group Dynamics and working in teams
- Critical thinking
- Interpersonal skills
- Cross-cultural skills
- Analysis and interpretation of data
- Problem solving and decision making
- Mentoring Skills
- Career Planning and Training
- Managing third party relationships
- Customer Relationship Management
An examination of group dynamics and team leadership, how to work with groups, leadership styles, leading by example and managing by objectives.
This section will be focused on the development of team based leadership skills. This means understanding aspects of "group dynamics" and the determination of optimization of results by both team based learning and participation in group activities. The course will consist of two main components:
Open discussion of leadership:
- What is it? How does it apply to team situations?
- Qualities required to be a leader
- Defining leadership in a team setting
- The skills needed to become a leader
- Leaders are created not born?
- Examples of leadership styles
- The concept of leadership behaviour
- Going beyond the traditional leader stereotype
- Individual leadership qualities and strengths
- Understanding the way effective communication works
- The importance of attitude
- Understanding empathy
- Leadership by example - gaining the respect of others
- Gaining people commitment
- Intellect, innovation and creativity
- Gaining consensus in group decision making
- Managing effective meetings
- Process based leadership
- Effective Listening
- Root Cause Analysis
- The Balanced Scorecard
- Constructive feedback
- Gaining leverage from group analysis
Modern methods of management accounting, effective management report writing, use of computers, problem solving and decision making.
Management Accounting is concerned with the provision of business accounting information to Managers within organizations:
- General Management Accounting principles
- Techniques used for solving business problems
- How IT is used in Management Accounting
- How Management Accounting is utilized for Management report writing
- An examination of current and future trends
- International competition in the UK : focus on integration of Japanese business
- Budgeting for planning & control
- Variance Analysis
- Capital Budgeting
- Absorption Costing
- Variable Costing
- Balanced Scorecard
- Activity based costing
- Management Reporting
- Benchmarking
- Estimating
- Shareholder value analysis
- Information Technology and Accounting
Gain an appreciation of Planning, Organization and Control in the context of modern project management. The course will focus heavily on the applied use of PRINCE2.
- The fundamentals of Project Management
- An overview of the PRINCE methodology
- Understanding Organizational need
- Project Planning
- An introduction to the use of Microsoft Project
- Project Controls - setting up a project
- How to manage risks
- How to establish change control procedures
- Configuration Management
- Aspects of due diligence
- Resource Management
- The fundamentals of Project Management
- An overview of the PRINCE methodology
- Understanding Organizational need
- Project Planning
- An introduction to the use of Microsoft Project
- Project Controls - setting up a project
- How to manage risks
- How to establish change control procedures
- Configuration Management
- Aspects of due diligence
- Resource Management
Students will examine the skill sets adopted by the leading firms of management consultants. In particular focusing on methods of enquiry, scoping of assignments, stakeholder management, report writing, problem solving and decision making, management of risks, understanding the concept of value-added delivery.
Students will gain an appreciation of:
- The business of consultancy
- Conducting consultancy projects
- Creating change
- Effective report writing
- Data collection and analysis
- Rational persuasion
- Making client presentations
- Training Sessions and Workshops
Tips for putting together visual presentations, public speaking, how to address people, how to gain audience participation and getting the best from people to assist in creating professional and effective presentations.
Unit 8 - Strategic Planning
Students will examine the concepts of strategic planning assignments, looking at aspects of alignment and integration to both Corporate Planning and Programme Management.
The student canexpect the following from this course:
- How to conduct a Scoping Study
- How to conduct a Strategy Study
- Defining Strategy - Examination of findings and options
- Implementation Planning - Progressing a strategy into action plans
- Monitoring, Tuning and Review - Techniques for monitoring and maintaining strategy
- Concepts of Interlock - Corporate Planning and Program Management
- Methodologies - A look at methodologies being used
- Tools and Techniques for the strategic planner
- A look at some of the commonly used strategic models
- Reporting - Presentation of strategic planning reports to Executives
- What can go wrong? - How to avoid the most common pitfalls
This unit considers the forces that invoke organizational change, mergers and acquisitions, business process re-engineering, policy change, external change agents and how people deal with change.
The course will consider the three dimensions of leadership - Outcomes, Interests and Emotions.
Students will expect to gain the following:
- The underpinning theory
- Concepts of organizational change
- Leading Change
- Understanding mergers and acquisitions
- Cultural Change
- Organizational restructuring
- IT based process change
- Impact of change in the global economy
- Change in the new digital age
- Implications of time
In this section students will examine the new global village, the new administrator in the digital age, international business opportunities, dealing with different cultures and backgrounds, aspects of communication and management expectations within the international business scene.
Students will expect to derive the following skill sets or knowledge from this course:
- An understanding of the global economy
- At work in the digital age
- Changes being imposed by the new global economy
- Cultural implications
- meaning of convergence
- The cultural divide
- Challenges of the new era
- The importance of distance learning
- An understanding of ITIL
- The future of the internet
- The wireless economy Advances in global telecommunications
