Need a Business Degree - quickly.

DA365

Little bit of background.

I have been mid level manager in some pretty large multinationals in the UK and Dublin. In the past 5 years, I've taken some huge steps up to departmental operations management and in the last 2 years, have been at regional senior management level.

I have quite literally no qualifications, having a kid at 16 dictated that I had to work my ass off, which I have.

My boss, who is at Director/VP level, has told me that he will be retiring in 3 years and will be strongly recommending that I succeed him. He holds serious stroke in this business and it has a serious record of significantly promoting its own.

To be in that type of global role before the age of 40 is quite honestly, absolutely mind blowing.

The catch? I need to have a degree in business, which I don't.

I have looked at part time evening and weekend courses in Dublin and the surrounding areas, and most run 4 years, which I don't have.

Then I saw this course:

http://www.dbs.ie/business-studies/postgraduate-higher-diploma

This runs 16 months and is at level 8, which according to the Irish National Framework of qualifications - is at a higher level than a degree and the equivalent of a masters degree.

My concern is that in the UK, where my company's head office is based, a higher diploma is not at this type of level. It's very much a lower level type of certification.

The question I have is, can I do this course and it be sufficient, or can i do this course and then do something part time for a year that will officially say degree on it or am I going to struggle to get this done?

Any advise, as always - greatly appreciated.

starlit

I personally wouldn't recommend this course unless you have a strong business background. I wouldn't recommend dbs either for postgrad course. You need to be a graduate already to do a postgrad. You could do a fetac plc course take you into a degree if you meet requirements. Online business courses aswell open university, dcu and ul and nuig might do something suitable but mostly the uni distance courses be mainly postgrad courses.

I'd suggest to do the hdip in business else where.
Does it have to be an hnours degree/level 8?
Are there any night courses you could do part time over a year or two or ones be on saturdays?

Says non business grads can apply but thats those with a different degree to business. You might get in based on work experience but you need a degree to do this hdip from what i can see.

Any springboard course you could do business management or business related? Ya good few spans longer than two years. You could do a cert course for a year get you into ba ordinary degree? The I.T's might do this. Research more. The unis be good too or do you need to stay in city or anywhere close in dublin o r near dub unless you need public transport? DIT be good or nuim.

Have you to organise childcare? Take all factors into account and weigh up pros and cons if each course you looked at, research more.

All depends what kind of career path you hope to follow and gain from. Institute of Public administration and university of ireland might be worth sussing out. Suss out oscail.

Best of luck!

DA365

Thank you kindly for the speedy response.

I've spoken to DBS who have indicated that I would be accepted into th course due to my extensive work experience in business.

I have quite literally looked everywhere for something that says degree that I can do part time and at weekends but have found oly this that meets the timescale requirements.

Level 7 would be sufficient, but am unable to find a part time course anywhere.

What I don't understand is why they call a level 7 a degree, but a level 8 a higher diploma.

starlit

A level 7 degree is an ordinary degree. A level 8 can either be an honours degree or higher diploma. A hDip level 8 is usually a conversion course, a course you can do after an honours degree. It maybe let you teach depends on course and gets you to further specialise in specific or general area of study. There are special purpose award courses that be level 8 courses but could be a cert, dip, hDip or degree even a postgrad cert or dip or masters if level 9.

Best of luck with the course.

Heart Break Kid

I really think with someone with your experience, you might get advanced entry into a business degree course.

uck51js9zml2yt

be careful in defining th course levrlse. a h.dip is not a masters which is level 9.
it's effectively the Hons bachelor's without a thesis.

I've done a h.dip. postgraduate diploma (level 9) and an Hons bachelor's in the last 3,years.

try the nci. they will let you get in on experience rather than qualifications.

silver campaign

Three year business degree here, but it starts in a couple of weeks.

http://hiberniacollege.com/courses/b-sc-in-business/#Structure-and-assessment

buzzb123

May be too late to reply however you may be excepted into a maters programme / MBA on the basis of your experience, I know someone who has just been excepted. It may cost more however tax relief can be claimed on fees. The masters can be done generally over too years. It would just mean you will get the award more quickly.

Also there are colleges in Dublin that offer honour business degree programmes within a three year time frame.

Y

OP the course you linked seems to be a conversion course for those who already have a degree in a non-business disciplne.

I think an Executive MBA or masters degree might be for you:
http://www.tcd.ie/business/mba/entry-application/
http://www.imi.ie/masters-programmes/masters-in-management-practice/
http://www.dit.ie/postgrad/programmes/dt348mba/
They usually require that you have an undergraduate degree but do allow those with extensive management experience to apply.

There really isn't any short cut though - an undergraduate business degree would be three years full time - this part time distance BBS is four years https://myucd.ucd.ie/course.do?courseID=9