What exactly is a business management degree?

If you’re looking to start a business or a career, make a career change, or simply learn business practices to apply to your current position or business, a business degree may be a good choice for you. But what do you learn in business school exactly?

Well, the short answer is, you learn foundational business knowledge and then specialise according to your major!

For example, at James Cook University in Singapore, all business degrees start with core subjects that include:

• Accounting for Decision Making
• Principles of Economics
• Principles of Data Analysis for Business
• Introduction to Management Concepts and Application
• Business Communication
• Marketing Matters
• Business Law

Students will then select business majors, ranging from Hospitality and Tourism Management to Marketing. Additionally, students conclude their studies with a core Work Integrated Learning (WIL) experience that connects them to the business community, enabling them to demonstrate their graduate skills to potential employers.

What are the different career paths and options with a business degree?

One of the best attributes of a business degree is the sheer flexibility of career options for graduates. From accounting & finance, consultancy, retail & sales to marketing management, business degrees open up many fields for you to find a career that’s a great fit for you.

Some of the most common career paths and positions include:

• Business analyst

Business analysts put their business expertise to work by observing the market and business trends to create recommendations for the businesses they serve. This is a position that requires a mix of business sense, research skills, analytical thinking and excellent communication skills for presenting their findings.

• Account manager

At the heart of it, account managers focus on building and maintaining mutually-beneficial partnerships between businesses and clients. What this looks like can vary from employer to employer, but typically there’s a sales element to their work. They’ll spend their time communicating with clients, discovering their needs and (ideally) selling additional services to meet them.

• Financial analyst

Financial analysts provide guidance to businesses and individuals making investment decisions. This includes researching market trends, analysing financial statements and preparing reports for management teams. In short, their job is to make sure that management teams have the information needed to make smart investment decisions.

• Marketing manager

Marketing managers analyse industry trends to determine the best marketing strategies, and come up with imaginative ideas for their brand while leading a broad internal team. This requires a mix of creativity, strategic thinking and research abilities to create plans for serving the right message to the right audience at the right time.

• Project manager

If you’ve ever worked on a complex project with multiple parties, it’s easy to see the value of project managers. They’re the professionals tasked with ensuring a project runs smoothly to meet deadlines and goals. They do this by communicating with project owners to determine needs, assigning roles and tasks to the team, tracking progress and facilitating the communication of issues or other changes. Essentially, they do their best to make sure everyone involved in a project is informed and working towards a clear, shared goal.

How long do you need to complete a business management degree?

Around the world, an undergraduate degree that makes use of the two-semester academic calendar typically takes three years. Of course, this is dependent on whether you're taking the degree on a full time or part-time basis.

However, at James Cook University, we have advanced from the typical two-semester system of the academic calendar. This gives rise to our trimester system, which expedites the learning pathway for students of our business management courses to just two years for full-time students.

In fact, if you’re looking into studying business but not entering directly into a degree course, James Cook University also offers a Diploma of Higher Education (Majoring in Business Studies) to acquire the necessary skills needed to progress to an undergraduate degree program.

Gain a head start in your career with a business management degree at James Cook University.

At James Cook University, you'll receive a high-quality Bachelor of Business degree in Singapore, with state-of-the-art facilities and the latest in advanced technology, allowing you to pursue studies that create a meaningful impact in your field.

Deepen your industry knowledge and attain a globally-recognised Australian degree to expand your employability opportunities or pursue entrepreneurship.

Take charge of your future and the countless opportunities that await you! Enquire with us today!