An MBA is valuable proof that you\u2019ve honed your skills under expert tutelage, forged a useful network of contacts and explored business ideas that go far beyond what you encounter during a normal day on the job.<\/p>\n
Typically though, an MBA requires applicants to hold a three-year bachelor degree \u2013 enough to deter even the most driven business people who haven\u2019t gone to uni. Add the 18-month duration of a normal MBA and you\u2019re looking at a four-and-a-half-year commitment.<\/p>\n
But times are changing. Some universities are now allowing experienced business people to work toward an MBA without holding a bachelor degree.<\/p>\n
Curtin University is one such place. At Curtin, you can apply for a six-month Graduate Certificate in Business<\/a> with only three years\u2019 work experience \u2013 and start an MBA as soon as you\u2019ve completed it.<\/p>\n 1<\/sup> Study.eu 2024<\/a><\/p>\n Offered by Curtin Business School \u2013 a recognised elite global business school with a triple accreditation \u2013 this course provides foundational knowledge in economics, financial decision-making, leadership and organisational behaviour.<\/p>\n You can choose to study part time, and there are options for evening classes and online study so you can study and<\/em> keep your day job. Once you\u2019ve completed the four units of the grad cert, you can choose to exit or go on to complete the additional eight units required to gain your MBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n This direct pathway reduces the duration of the MBA by six months, saving you valuable time and money. For busy professionals, it beats three years of undergrad study!<\/p>\n HIF Business Manager Nicole Baron began her insurance career after high school, and for 12 years, she rose through the ranks, forging a reputation as a motivated, innovative leader.<\/p>\n Adding a qualification to her CV was something she wanted to do, but having been away from the classroom for so long, she had no idea how she was going to get there.<\/p>\n \u201cMy biggest fear was that I would need to go back to school for year 12 exams,\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n \u201cI called Curtin and the person on the phone said, \u2018If you haven\u2019t completed an undergraduate degree, you\u2019ll need to \u2026\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI waited until she finished, and then asked, \u2018what\u2019s an undergraduate degree?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n A rocky start, but Nicole says the call was incredibly helpful. Her fear of heading back to high school was allayed \u2013 instead, the Special Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT) would be the first stepping stone on her pathway to an MBA.<\/p>\n Having passed the STAT and submitting her current CV, she was accepted into the Graduate Certificate in Business at Curtin. While working full-time, she finished the course in six months and signed up for the MBA, which would be another 12 months of study.<\/p>\n She found the workload manageable.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hours are perfect, from 5.30 to 8.30pm in the CBD. The weekends are spent working through assignments either in a group or on my own. I\u2019ve also done some intensive units that break up the longer units.<\/p>\n \u201cThe networking opportunities let you share ideas and allow you to grasp how on track you really are with your assignments,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Nicole says her university experience is already helping her professionally.<\/p>\n \u201cStudying the MBA has increased my confidence when leading and managing people. I feel as though I have a stronger grasp on organisations now compared with when all my knowledge was only based on experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At Curtin, you can study an MBA degree without needing to have a bachelor degree first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":23619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"7581,8554,4909,4739,5101,7660","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":49,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,49],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-8396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-innovation","category-business-innovation-and-law"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"Take the grad cert pathway to an MBA","content":" Want to broaden your career opportunities? Our Master of Business Administration<\/a> is flexible and agile, offering you relevant business knowledge and leadership skills for a global context.<\/p>\n The Graduate Certificate in Business<\/a> can be your entry pathway to the\u00a0Master of Business Administration (MBA)<\/a>, but can also be taken as a challenging stand-alone course. You\u2019ll study at our city campus in the heart of the Perth central business district.<\/p>\n","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"Master of Business Administration","qualification":"Master of Business Administration","link":"https:\/\/study.curtin.edu.au\/offering\/course-pg-master-of-business-administration--mc-busadm\/","description":"","faculty":"Curtin Business School"},{"title":"Graduate Certificate in Business","qualification":"Graduate Certificate in Business","link":"https:\/\/study.curtin.edu.au\/offering\/course-pg-graduate-certificate-in-business--gc-busi\/","description":"","faculty":"Curtin Business School"}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}},"post_components":false},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/CGSB-133_1588x840-1000x840.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Anita","last_name":"Shore","display_name":"Anita Shore"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 01:23:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8396"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=8396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A bit more about Curtin\u2019s Graduate Certificate in Business<\/h3>\n
Nicole\u2019s story<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Nicole-Baron-252x336.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n