Online Business Management Certificate with Purdue MS/MSE Engineering Management & Leadership

Structure
The Kelley online Business Management graduate certificate program will:

• Total 12 credit hours
• Flexible completion timeline from 1-2 years
• Consist of approximately 3 credit hours per quarter

You'll learn from the same top-ranked faculty who teach in the residential programs.

Customize the fields you focus your certificate in by choosing four of the nine courses offered:

• K520 Quantitative Analysis
• C521 Managing Accounting Information for Decision-Making
• C522 Information Technology
• C530 Economics for Managers
• C540 Financial Management
• C550 Law and Ethics in Business
• C562 Developing Strategic Capabilities
• C570 Strategic Marketing Management
• C580 Operations Management

Price

• Application fee: $0
• Tuition: $1,000 per credit hour 
• Materials fee: varies by the course 
• Additional fees: none 

Application deadlines: June 1 for fall, September 1 for winter, December 1 for spring, March 1 for summer   

Upcoming term dates:

• Fall term 2024: August 12 through October 31
• Winter term 2024: November 4, 2024, through February 13, 2025
• Spring term 2025:  February 17 through May 8, 2025
• Summer term 2025:  May 19 through August 7, 2025

Test scores: No GMAT or GRE are required   

Bachelor's degree: Can be in any field

Application process

There are two parts to the application. The Part 1 application takes just five minutes to complete.

Start Part 1 application

• After submitting Part 1, you will receive a confirmation email containing the link to Part 2.
• Part 2 requires undergraduate transcript, current resume, personal statement, and one letter of recommendation.

Apply now for this program through Purdue Engineering Professional Education.

Certificate cost and requirements

Graduate certificates from the Kelley School of Business are designed to be flexible and cost-effective.

Your business management certificate will:

• Total 12 credit hours
• Cost $1,000 per credit hour
• Be completed over the course of 6 to 12 months
• Consist of four courses, 3 credits per course
• Be completed fully online
• Not require GMAT/GRE scores

A bachelor’s degree is required.

In this course, we enhance the students' basic statistical and mathematical modeling skills covering the following topics:

• Probabilistic decision-making
• Regression analysis
• Forecasting
• Simulation models
• Optimization modeling with the EXCEL Solver.

In this course, you’ll gain a user-oriented understanding of how accounting information should be managed to ensure its availability on a timely and relevant basis for decision-making. The first part of the course reviews financial accounting and reporting while the second part of the course focuses on cost-benefit analysis for evaluating the potential value-added results from planning, organizing, and controlling a firm’s accounting information. The use of cases, forum discussions, and computer support is used extensively.

Study of information systems management issues including skill and talent management; IT costs, budgets, value, and chargeback systems; priority setting and financial justification of IT investments; project management; runaway projects and underperforming vendors; security risks and crises; emerging technology policies; communication expectations amongst senior executives; vendor management; infrastructure standardization; support for innovation; and risk management.

In this course, you’ll learn about:

• Economic decision-making in the business firm
• The strategic interaction of competing firms within various industries
• The purchasing and behavior of individual consumers and consumers as a group
• The influence of public policy on market outcomes

You’ll also develop:

• A fluency with the language of economics and a strong 'economic intuition'
• An understanding of selected economics-based decision-making tools and the impact and interaction of the structure of an industry on competition.
• The skills to analyze intra-industry rivalry
• An improved understanding of public policy issues

There will be an emphasis on the logical foundations of economic analysis and managerial decision-making to promote the understanding and application of various quantitative measures.

In this course, you will:

• Develop a working knowledge of the tools and analytical conventions used in the practice of corporate finance
• Establish an understanding of the basic elements of financial theory to be used in application of analytical reasoning to business problems
• Explore the interrelationship among corporate policies and decisions

Your coursework will include problem sets, study group preparation of executive summary memos and critiques, and the use of PC spreadsheets to develop a planning model for a case focusing on funds requirement.

The objective is to provide the student of management with a basic knowledge of the American legal system, the legal process and relevant substantive law necessary to make informed and effective business decisions. The law develops and evolves in response to changing social, economic, political, and technological forces, and business decisions often carry long-lasting as well as delayed effects. This course emphasizes the study of the law of torts, contracts, and product liability. It is hoped that considered study of these legal principles will give prospective managers insight into the dynamics of the legal process to enable them to predict as soundly as possible the future legal environment in which their present decisions will have lasting impact.

This course offers an introduction to tools for strategic management. It provides an introductory review of the complexities involved in determining long-term strategies. Rather than assessing the firm's environment in terms of broadly defined opportunities and threats, we will examine the dynamics of the competitive environment, how both the pace and direction of industry change are influenced by the resources, capabilities, and competitive interaction of rivals. The course uses discussion forums, team projects, and an interactive simulation.

Here’s your introduction to the process of creating a market-driven organization. Specific course topics will include marketing strategy, market research and analysis, and the development of products and services, pricing, distribution and promotion. The course employs lectures, classroom discussion through threaded discussion forums, case analysis, and field research projects.

In this course, you’ll survey the management of operations in manufacturing and service firms. Students will work through diverse activities, such as:

• Determining the optimal size and type of production process needed
• Purchasing the appropriate raw materials
• Planning and scheduling the flow of materials and determining the nature and content of inventories
• Assuring product quality
• Deciding on production hardware and how it gets used

You’ll also learn that managing operations will require both strategic and tactical skills. The topics considered include:

• Process Analysis
• Workforce Issues
• Materials Management
• Quality and Productivity
• Technology
• Strategic Planning

The course makes considerable use of business cases and most classes will be spent discussing the cases assigned. For each case, students will be asked to review actual company situations and apply technical and managerial skills to recommend courses of action. Most cases will be taken from manufacturing, but some will be service-oriented. Several of the cases will focus on international companies or challenges.