Associate Certificate in Business Fundamentals

at British Columbia Institute of Technology - Burnaby Campus Canada

The Professional Sales option is one of the most respected sales programs in Canada and our graduates are sought after by industry. Professional Sales will prepare you for a career in the dynamic field of business-to-business selling. Companies require skilled sales professionals to develop new customers and build mutually-beneficial relationships. You will learn how to apply proven sales methods, develop sales strategies, and implement marketing skills and new technologies to develop new business and retain customers.

Your creativity and love for visual communication combined with your eye for aesthetics could lead you to a fulfilling and successful career in graphic design. In this age of information, organizations are expanding their communications and marketing departments, increasing the demand for graphic designers and communication professionals.

The Certificate in Communication Design Essentials, a partnership program between BCIT and Emily Carr University (ECU), provides you with a skillset preparing you for success in the graphic design field in 12 months. This intensive program combines technical expertise with a solid foundation in visual communication and the design process. This program provides you with the option of a block transfer of credits towards the ECU 4-year Communication Design bachelor’s degree. You may opt to continue your studies on a full or part-time basis, or launch your exciting new career immediately.

Mechanical design provides exciting and challenging work opportunities in the rapidly evolving Green Economy. The global restructuring of economies toward more environmentally friendly and sustainable energy and manufacturing processes will depend on the knowledge and skills of those working in Mechanical Engineering Technology.

The Mechanical Engineering program provides you with the theory and skills you need to work as a qualified engineering technologist. It prepares you for the jobs of the future by teaching you about machinery design, energy productions, thermal and fluid systems, hydraulics, pneumatics, material science, instrumentation and controls, computer-aided design (CAD), and computer-aided engineering (CAE).

Are you enticed by the idea of starting your own business? Do you enjoy finding unique solutions to problems? Does the idea of single-handedly guiding a business to success interest you? Then you might be an entrepreneur.
BCIT’s Entrepreneurship diploma was developed specifically to give people like you the focused, intensive training necessary for success in creating, guiding, and managing businesses. Whether you're looking to start your own business from scratch or expand on an idea you're already working on, this program will train you with hands-on, real-world skills and knowledge.

Program Highlights

• Real-world learning with professional entrepreneurs
• Business consultant project and practicum provide hands-on experience
• After graduation, transition to the workforce or apply to complete your Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree at BCIT with full-time or part-time evening courses

To learn more about how the Entrepreneurship diploma can turn your idea into a successful enterprise, visit the Program Details page.

Who should apply for the Entrepreneurship Diploma?
Entrepreneurship might be right for you if you:

• Have some work experience
• Completed high school and have some post-secondary education
• Have a "big-picture" kind of outlook
• Enjoy finding creative solutions to problems
• Have an interest in developing new business ideas and services

The BCIT Environmental Health program is applied learning at its best. Our industry-leading instructors train you to become a health inspector and environmental public health professional.

This program prepares students to enter the field of environmental health as professional, effective members of a multi-disciplinary health team. Graduates will be able to recognize, evaluate, and manage environmental factors that impact on human health. They will have the knowledge and skills needed to meet a growing range of environmental health roles and responsibilities, specifically:

• Expanded knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to meet the current and evolving needs of employers, the profession, and the community;
• A commitment to life-long learning and professional growth;
• An appropriate combination of specialty, research, and multi-disciplinary courses that will promote the development of critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, and communication skills.

General studies in health and the health engineering sciences, liberal studies, health care management, math, and the physical and social sciences are included. Instructional modes include lectures, labs, guided learning, field trips, directed studies, and practical experiences

The BCIT Advanced Diploma in Business Management is designed to equip students with fundamental business knowledge to complement expertise and education in other disciplines. This program will introduce students to foundational business functions including: accounting, economics, marketing, human resource management, and operations. Graduates are prepared to lead and contribute to a broad range of core business areas, as well as leverage prior knowledge and expertise to launch into entrepreneurial pursuits. The breadth of course topics, applied nature of our programming, and the focus on teamwork prepares graduates to thrive in today’s global business environment.

Program Highlights

• One-year Advanced Diploma program
• Explore foundations of business through intense exploration and practice in cohort-based classes with a maximum of 25 students/lab
• Practice personal and team leadership, time and project management
• Develop critical thinking to support informed decision making, resolve conflicts, reveal opportunities, and overcome challenges
• Leverage diverse experience and network of faculty and classmates to put newly acquired knowledge to work.

Learn more about how this program prepares you for success in the Program Details.

The Automotive Service Technician and Operations (ASTO) program has been designed to meet the need for skilled technicians who can diagnose and repair the sophisticated systems in today’s motor vehicles. It is also for those with an interest in automotive, but who aspire to run their own business or assume customer service and management positions in the industry.

This program offers maximum career flexibility, enabling graduates to pursue their Automotive Service Technician Red Seal certification with the option for post-diploma baccalaureate pathways in business administration and technology management.

The program
This ASTO program is comprised of four technical training terms with two paid 22-week co-op work terms in an automotive repair facility.

Upon successful completion of the program, students will receive an Automotive Service Technician and Operations Diploma and qualify for credit towards all four levels of technical training requirements in the Provincial Automotive Service Technician Apprenticeship program.

Organizations achieve success through people. The primary role of human resources is to build organizational capability to support the execution of business strategy. If you want a career as a human resource professional, this is your program. The BCIT Human Resource Management diploma is perfect for individuals who want to better understand employment relationships, improve a corporate culture, increase employee productivity, and create great places to work. You will create performance management policies, employee compensation packages, hiring selection criteria, and employee onboarding and retention programs. Graduates can immediately apply their human resource skills in numerous industries. BCIT prepares graduates to deliver best practices in human resources.

BCIT Human Resource Management students learn to:

• Influence employment relationships and employee engagement
• Create effective talent acquisition and retention practices
• Develop compensation programs
• Address workplace conflicts
• Apply employment law
• Identify and facilitate human resource best pracitices

Students will be taught how to use the following technology:

• MS Project, PowerPoint, Access
• MS Excel - Solver and Analysis Toolpak VBA
• SAP HCM
• Halogen
• Tableau
• Various Web Survey Tools

Business Consulting Project
Human Resource Management students undertake a 10 week Business Consulting Project in their final term. Students work in groups of 2-3 and spend two days a week developing a solution to a real human resource problem for a company. The student teams collect and analyze data, create recommendations, and present their findings to senior management.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been called the new electricity. AI and machine learning (ML) systems are currently being utilized to organize supply chains, manage customer relationships, transfer organizational knowledge, and optimize enterprise resources. According to estimates, up to 47% of current jobs could be automated by AI, robotics, and machine learning systems in the next two decades. Firms have identified that a lack of skilled people make deployment of machine learning capabilities an ongoing challenge. Due to these factors, numerous jobs will become available for managing these systems.

The Business Information Technology Management (BITMAN) – Artificial Intelligence Management (AIM) option will train artificial intelligence/machine learning management knowledge workers for entry-level positions managing AI/ML/business intelligence solutions. This option will focus on AI business models, AI ethics, machine learning for business (supervised learning, neural networks, and deep learning), computer vision, and natural language processing (NLP).

Set the stage for a prosperous career in business with the Accounting diploma program at BCIT. By training with knowledgeable, experienced instructors who are respected professionals in the accounting industry, you’ll learn how accounting is the backbone of businesses big and small. In just two years, this highly experiential program will prepare you to step into a corporate office or head back into the classroom to complete your bachelor’s degree. The road to CPA designation is an easy one with the accounting programs at BCIT.

Who should apply for the Accounting Diploma?
The Accounting diploma program is right for you if you:

• Have completed high school or higher
• Have a degree and need accounting upgrading
• Are looking to earn your CPA designation 
• Want to pursue a multi-faceted business career