Pathway Program

International Business

Business Essentials

Every company needs junior professionals but training new hires is difficult, expensive, and time consuming—making it challenging to land a foot in the door.

Next start date: April 1

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Gain critical skills across key business functions


Every company needs junior professionals but training new hires difficult, expensive, and time consuming—making it difficult to land a foot in the door. The Business Essentials Pathway Program is designed for entry-level (or aspiring entry-level) professionals looking to gain relevant skills for the modern business environment. Whether it’s a leg in—or just a leg up—you'll learn:

Principles of both traditional and digital marketing

How companies digitize and/or automate legacy processes

How global companies operate across languages, cultures, and time zones

How to communicate for influence and impact

Organizing, planning, monitoring, and controlling projects

Making business and financial decisions using data

Program Courses

The Business Essentials Pathway Program consists of seven (7) individual courses. Learners who successfully complete the program will receive a Certificate of Completion.

  • Roadmap to Success

    Roadmap to success is the foundational course for the Business program. This course prepares learners for success in the degree program and promotes a journey towards lifelong learning. You’ll develop skills for communication, academic writing, self-discovery, career development and presentation skills.

    This course is a hybrid competency-courses and introduces the learner to the competency-based model of Nexford courses in the BBA program.

  • The World of Business

    The World of Business introduces the domain of business and key elements of the functional areas within the context that an organization operates. You’ll examine a variety of functional areas and types of business in order to understand their interconnectedness. Additional topics include the business cycle, global business practices, and impact on productivity.

  • Fundamentals of Digital Transformation

    This course provides a survey of three types of capability transformations that enable digital transformation: people, tool, and process. At the people capability level, digital transformation requires the organization to hire and retain customer-centric and service-oriented talent; this talent search demands more collaboration and knowledge sharing while breaking down the silos between business and technology. At the tool capability level, a horizontal digital enabling layer is required to be developed, covering big data analytics, artificial intelligence, robotics, IoT, wearables, augmented and artificial reality, and modular manufacturing. Vertical business applications require digitization by the horizontal digital enablers in vertical business applications such as supply chain management, customer experience, finance and administration, and more. At the process capability level, digital transformation requires the business processes to be automated via the horizontal digital enablers.

  • Digital Marketing Fundamentals

    Digital Marketing Fundamentals provides an understanding of the digital marketing landscape, key trends impacting the industry, the changed customer journey, and the role each channel can play in that journey. The course also examines the advantages and subsequent challenges of this expanding marketing venue.

    You’ll explore the tools that currently exist and the potential for future applications of the digital platform for marketing purposes. The course will further explore the digital platform as a tool for businesses in general in order to increase its levels of efficiency, effectiveness, and competitive position in the market space. You’ll also learn how to define and develop a digital strategy to help a business achieve its goals.

  • Professional Communication

    Professional Communication places an emphasis on communication styles and approaches in today's workplace to include digital, verbal and nonverbal communication. The course focuses on the evaluation of case analysis and discussion and on practical business and professional communication skills, including writing, speaking, and listening. Emphasis is on clarity, organization, format, appropriate language, and consideration of audience, for both written and oral communication.

    You’ll engage in self-assessment of communicative competence and learn strategies for enhancing their skills. The course explores how technology and other tools are integrated into communications within a professional setting and students will be able to identify appropriate and inappropriate professional communications.

  • Financial Accounting

    Financial Accounting focuses on the foundations of financial accounting concepts and methods used to generate, analyze, and interpret financial statements. Learners perform journal entries and record-keeping of transactions with an understanding of how these accounts are measured and reported in major financial statements.

  • Project Management

    Project Management highlights a key tool for any organization, which is the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously to positive results. This course examines from an organizational perspective the tasks associated with project management. The focus is on the four components of the project life-cycle in an international business setting: organizing, planning, monitoring and controlling. Learners identify and apply relevant project management tools and methods designed to execute projects in an effective manner that maximizes efficiency and minimizes cost.

FACT:

Entry-level jobs increasingly require tangible skills

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Job Outlook survey (2022), hiring managers for entry-level jobs still look for specific skills and attributes from new hires—among them, communication, technical skills, problem solving, and quantitative analysis.

Source: NACE

Meet Wisdom

Wisdom Ofori is a BBA learner in Ghana and the CEO of a highly successful design agency.

At Nexford he is learning about global business and specializing in artificial intelligence, as he wants to be able to add more strings to his bow so that he can grow his business and maybe one day branch out into new areas of business.

He chose Nexford not only because he wanted to upskill and reskill, but also because of the flexibility of the learning process which allowed him to fit his learning into his busy life schedule. He is also valuing the support he gets from his success advisors and fellow learners whom he is able to network with whenever he needs to.

Admissions Requirements

The admissions requirements for the Business Essentials Pathway Program are:

Age 18 or older

Self-certification that you have completed high school, or passed national exams (or have failed national exams, but will retake in the next 4-6 months)

Appropriate device with stable internet connection (view requirements)

Tuition & Duration

Monthly tuition

With our Business Essentials pathway program, you'll pay tuition monthly at a cost of . So the faster you finish, the more money you’ll save.

Complete in as little as 6 months

The Business Essentials Pathway Program can be completed in as little as 6 months. Learners should expect to spend approximately 18 hours/week watching lectures and completing course content.

It's 100% online

Study 100% online and prepare for the future today.

Set yourself on the pathway to a Nexford BBA

Whether you’re looking to break in or break out, the Business Essentials Pathway Programs opens doors. Each course is competency-based, meaning you’re gaining skills with each class completed.

Learners who opt to apply for, meet admission requirements for (including submitting your official high school transcript from an accredited school), and enroll into, the BBA program will gain credit for the coursework in the Business Essentials Pathway Program.

Note: The Business Essentials Pathway Program and BBA degree have separate admissions requirements. See Admissions Requirements for additional information.

Ready to take the next step in your career?

Then take the next step to get started in the Business Essentials Pathway Program from Nexford University.