Following up a diploma with a business degree just makes good business sense, according to James Loder.
“Having a business degree to supplement practical training makes an awful lot of sense,” said Loder, the Director of Admissions and Marketing with Academy Canada Career College in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Now, Yorkville University is making it easier for graduates of Academy Canada Career College to leverage their education into a Bachelor of Business Administration.
Yorkville University has entered into collaboration with Academy Canada Career College, whereby students who have graduated from a qualified program are eligible to transfer credits towards their Bachelor of Business Administration offered online through Yorkville University.
“This partnership creates a situation where graduates from a number of programs at Academy Canada don’t have to start at square-one to get their degree,” explained Dr. Rick Davey, the president of Yorkville University. “And because the program is online, it also provides them with the opportunity to continue to work while they study.”
Dr. Davey went on to explain this partnership and a degree from Yorkville University gives graduates the tools they need to meet greater success in their chosen field or to strike out on their own as an entrepreneur.
“Academy Canada has a number of programs that lend themselves well to entrepreneurship,” Dr. Davey said. “But, in order to be successful in starting your own business you need to have a solid understanding of things like accounting, marketing and human resources. That is what Yorkville’s Bachelor of Business Administration offers students.”
Academy Canada offers 45 career-oriented programs at three major campuses in Corner Brook and St. John’s.
The school is divided in several faculties including Construction, Trades and Mining; Justice, which offers programs in fields like Paralegal studies and Criminology; Business, Computers and Travel with multiple programs in Office Administration; Creative Studies, which includes Graphic Design, Interior Decorating, Recording Arts and Photography; Health and Personal Care with programs that range from Developmental Support worker to Esthetics, Hairstyling and Massage; and the Faculty of Animal Care and Nature with programs in Animal Grooming, Natural Resources and Veterinary Assistant.
Although it might not be immediately apparent, a strong knowledge of business fundamentals would serve to augment greatly careers from across these fields.
“For graduates of many of these programs, it would be a natural progression to go out and start their own business at some point,” Loder said. “In Interior Decorating, Multimedia Graphic Design, Photographic studies, absolutely those are areas where I can see someone making the most money as independent business owners.”
The same is true of the esthetic programs, hairstyling, animal grooming.
Even in professional fields where one might not immediately see a natural tie to benefiting from a Degree in Business Administration, the knowledge students gain from business training transcends, Loder said.
“As a Paralegal you would be doing things like deed searches, wills, research for business cases, but if you don’t know the difference between a corporation and a sole proprietorship, but you have to go out and do research on a major case involving business partners suing each other, then it would be pretty hard to do it.”
Across their field, being able to speak the language of business definitely helps in terms of credibility in the workforce.
Particularly with the trades programs like carpentry, electrician and welding the Bachelor of Business Administration helps graduates to succeed in entrepreneurship.
“These are folks that are going to graduate and start out working for someone else, but it’s a natural progression to start your own company,” Loder said. “So, if all the training you have done is on how to turn the tools, how to pull the wire, but you don’t have any business skills then you are a little doomed for failure.”
However, he said, if a student can supplement the particle, hands-on skills and experience in their trade, with a solid education in business, their chances of success are much greater.
Loder said he expects there to be a great deal of interest in the BBA among students and graduates from Academy Canada College and one of the things that excites him most about the partnership is the diversity of programs at Academy Canada that could launch into a Bachelor of Business Administration.
“We are giving them a way to efficiently finish a degree,” Loder said. “The fact that they will get credit for their time, I think, is what makes this really attractive.
Also that it is online,” Loder went on to say. “People invest a lot of time and resources to go and do their diploma and a lot of them wouldn’t necessarily have the ability to pick up and move to another physical location.”
The amount of credit that applies to the BBA at Yorkville will be on a program-by-program basis. Visit Yorkville University’s Bachelor of Business Administration for more information.
