Advanced Diploma in Business Administration

Purpose

This qualification is a vocational qualification which is designed to provide or equip learners with a sound understanding of concepts, processes and techniques to supervise and or manage any business-related environment. The qualification prepares learners to conduct preliminary research and it also contributes to the economic and social up-skilling of South Africa.

Qualifying learners will be empowered to operate responsibly in most sectors in the field of Business Administration. They will be able to manage functions such as: business law compliance, financial statements and risk analysis, business financial management, and office management in general.

On completion of the qualification, graduates will be awarded a qualification and can also further their career in business administration by registering for a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration or other qualifications at Level 8 in the same field of study.

During the design of the qualification attention was given to learning and career pathways for learners, with opportunities for articulation with other programmes within and across institutions, where possible.

Rationale

The lack of adequate management and business management skills in South Africa plays an important role in the high failure rate in the Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprise (SMME) arena. This qualification will provide a set of very important and essential skills to support national efforts to equip prospective business managers and entrepreneurs to produce better economic results.

The Advanced Diploma in Business Administration focuses on the financial accounting, strategic business management as well as entrepreneurial aspects. It includes important business related modules to ensure a balanced perspective of modern corporate business to inform the environment within which the graduates must operate.

The qualification outcomes meet national and regional labour market and socio-cultural needs. Relevant stakeholders, including academic peers from outside the institution and employers represented on Advisory Committee, were involved in the development of this qualification. The Advisory Committee advised on the attributes that a graduate for this qualification should have which are embedded within the Exit Level Outcomes.

Learners will develop depth and specialisation of knowledge, together with practical skills, to enable graduates to apply their learning in the workplace.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

This qualification may be achieved in part through the recognition of relevant prior learning and through prior experience as a Practitioner in the field of Business Administration.

Providers are required to develop structured means for the assessment of individual learners against the Exit Level Outcomes of the qualification on a case-by-case basis. Such procedures, and the assessment of individual cases, are subject to moderation by independent assessors.

The necessary evidence as required by the Exit Level Outcomes, and presented by the learner, should meet the following principles: currency of evidence, sufficiency of evidence, validity of evidence and authenticity of evidence.

Entry Requirements

The minimum requirements to Advanced Diploma studies are

• Diploma at Level 6 with minimum 360 Credits.

Or

• An equivalent qualification.

This qualification consists of compulsory modules at Levels 7 totalling 120 Credits.

Compulsory Modules, Level 7,120 Credits

• Advanced Strategic Management IV, 30 Credits.
• Entrepreneurship IV, 30 Credits.
• Financial Accounting Aspects IV, 30 Credits.
• Research Methodology, 30 Credits.

1. Demonstrate ability to integrate central areas or practices in the field of Strategic Management including an ability to evaluate and apply the key terms, concepts, facts, principles, rules and theories of the discipline to unfamiliar but relevant contexts.
2. Demonstrate integrated knowledge of the central areas of entrepreneurship, spatial development and innovation in the field and practices of business development and strategic management.
3. Demonstrate ability to integrate central areas or practices in the field of financial accounting aspects including an ability to evaluate and apply the key terms, concepts, facts, principles, rules and theories of the field to unfamiliar but relevant contexts.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of a range of methods of enquiry and their suitability to specific investigations in the field of business administration, as well as the ability to select and apply a range of methods to resolve problems or introduce change within the practice of business administration.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 1

• Integrate central areas or practices in the field of strategic management.
• Evaluate and apply the key terms, concepts, facts, principles, rules and theories of the field of strategic management to the context of business administration.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 2

• Identify the significant areas of entrepreneurship, spatial development and innovation in the field and practices of business development and management.
• Analyse significant entrepreneurial development opportunities in the field of business development and management.
• Apply entrepreneurship theories and methodologies within the defined context of business development.
• Develop a logical argument in terms of the relevance or need for development of central areas in the field and practices of entrepreneurship.
• Create independent insight as well as individual, group, organisational and communal strategic leadership skills.

Associated assessment criteria for Exit Level Outcome 3

• Integrate the central areas or practices in the field of financial accounting aspects in the general practice of Business Administration.
• Evaluate and apply key terms, concepts, facts, principles, rules and theories of Financial Accounting Aspects to the context of business administration.

Associated assessment criteria for Exit Level Outcome 4

• Demonstrate an understanding of a range of methods of enquiry.
• Analyse and evaluate a range of methods of enquiry for their suitability to specific investigations in the field of business administration.
• Select and apply appropriate methods and techniques to resolve problems or introduce change within the practice of business administration.

Integrated Assessment

The overall assessment strategy of the department of Management and Entrepreneurship is that of integrated assessment which is evident in the approach to the assessment of applied competence. Applied competence is understood as the learners' ability to integrate concepts, ideas and actions in authentic, real-life contexts; the assessment of which is broken down to the assessment of foundational, practical and reflexive competence where:

• Foundational competence is the demonstrated understanding of what the learner does and why (s)he does it.
• Practical competence is the demonstrated ability to perform a set of tasks and actions in authentic contexts.
• Reflexive competence is the demonstrated ability to integrate learner's performances with their understanding so that they are able to adapt to changed circumstances and explain the reason behind these adaptations.

Integrated assessment further implies a planned combination of formative and summative assessment strategies with varying ratios, depending on the level (year) of study. Formative assessment implies being supportive to learning, non-judgemental and focused on providing constructive feedback or criticism to the learner and it takes place during the learning process and informs planning of future learning activities. Summative assessment implies assessment to be mainly concerned with summing up the learning process and therefore usually takes place at the end of the relevant learning process.