$20 Mini MBA/Business Consulting Cert: Western Univ. Canada

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by eriehiker, Dec 18, 2020.

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  1. eriehiker

    eriehiker Active Member

  2. Johann766

    Johann766 Active Member

    Fantastic hint, however I incline to think that you can only take this course if you are a student at this University?!
    In the descriptions it says "Hello Western Students!"...
     
  3. TeacherBelgium

    TeacherBelgium Well-Known Member

    Sounds like you don't get a certificate of achievement but only a certificate of completion. Big difference. A certificate of completion is taken less seriously because you just need to attend and it doesn't prove whether you understood the subject matter or not.
    Too bad they don't give you a certificate of achievement.
     
  4. nomaduser

    nomaduser Active Member

    you'll have to attend the university in person, right? then it sucks because Canada is not very safe from COVID-19.
     
  5. TeacherBelgium

    TeacherBelgium Well-Known Member

    No, if you read the text from the link you would know that this year they make an exception and let the lessons take place online.
    Still, you get a certificate of completion only. Not a certificate of achievement.
    You need to attend 18 hours of class : 1 hour theory and 1 hour practice twice weekly and you get a certificate of completion at the end if you attended 7 out of 9 classes (2 hours /class) at least.
    Doesn't seem to be worth much beside the knowledge you gain from it.
    You still don't get a certificate of achievement though as no assignments are made and graded by the student.
    This is sad.
    In this case I think that free Berkeley Haas - Uni of Philantrophy certificate is worth more since you need to complete assignments and pass them to get that one.
    An assignment should be standard practice to receive a certificate. Otherwise it's just handing over your money for a certificate. Which is not taken seriously by employers.
     
    nomaduser likes this.
  6. nomaduser

    nomaduser Active Member

    I think I will still try to get the certificate then! I just want any university certificate with my name on it.
     
  7. TeacherBelgium

    TeacherBelgium Well-Known Member

    Try Edex in that case.
    Edex is much better and gives you credit.
    A university certificate with your name on it isn't that impressive anymore nowadays. Employers know what they need to look for. Your average 16 year old nowadays is clever enough to analyse the language used on an educational document and draw their conclusions from it.

    If you want a certificate for free, take that Berkeley Haas - University of Philantrophy one then. There you need to complete an assignment. Somebody on this board took 4 hours to complete everything. And it will still be taken more seriously than this certificate of completion.

    Or try Edex.
    You can apply for financial hardship if you really need it.

    You can maybe try a certificate or a microcredential from Edex?

    Or Coursera.
    They have good courses too if your end goal is just a certificate with your name on it.

    A certificate of completion is useful for professionals who need to prove that they have attended X hours of classes to keep educating themselves each year.
    It's not useful for employment.
    A certificate of achievement however may be useful for employment if you can make it sound more important than it actually was.
     
    nomaduser likes this.
  8. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    I've completed a variety of different certificate programs, and several of them contradict the distinctions you assert here. If there is a dramatic difference, I've never seen it myself, and Google didn't turn up anything meaningful on the subject.

    I don't see what's wrong with completing something, anyway. Completion is an achievement.
     
    Dustin and SpoonyNix like this.
  9. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Right. Here we're in our second full lockdown. I think our area should have been there a month ago - but political popularity was at stake, I guess.

    "Things got bad, things got worse
    I guess you will know the tune
    Oh Lord, stuck in Lockdown again"

    (Apologies to Creedence Clearwater Revival)
     
    nomaduser likes this.
  10. TeacherBelgium

    TeacherBelgium Well-Known Member

    Second lockdown here too.
    Probably a third even coming if the numbers don't go down quickly here.
    Everyone wears masks, hospitality sector has been closed completely.
    Stores have recently reopened.
    All I can think about is that it's children in high-schools and primary schools who are fueling the virus.
    Kids under 12 don't need to wear a mask here. Not logic, I know.

    Also a lot of young people holding lockdown parties here. The fine is 250 euro per person. Ridiculously low. They should raise the fines to 1500 euro per person at least. That will make them think twice.
    250 euro is not severe enough to make them use their brains when partying.
     
  11. eriehiker

    eriehiker Active Member

    I think that the key with this thing is how closely they check to see if you are a student at the school. They might really care and they might not really care. Last week, I completed a health data research certificate at the University of Alabama - Birmingham. It was intended for UAB graduate and doctoral students, but they didn't care that I had zero association with the school and awarded me the certificate.

    This program does have a case study component at the very end. My understanding is that this involves presentations of case studies by participants which are judged by experts in the field. This mini-MBA appears to happen at ten universities in Canada in similar format. Here is one link for a very similar program based in Toronto:

    https://www.gmcacanada.com/business-fundamentals/

    This is a link from last year:

    https://www.gmcacanada.com/2019/12/05/events-2020-minimba-program/

    Here is another one:

    https://yorkgmca.ca/get-your-2020-york-gmca-business-and-consulting-certificate/

    The universities involved include some of the best in Canada - McGill, UBC, UofToronto/Rotman. Of course, this is an association at the university. Is the certificate considered of the university or of the association? Who knows? But $20 is not much wagered and trying to make it work is most of the fun anyway.
     
  12. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Wow. This is not going to go away in Belgium for a long time, at that rate. Here, the lockdown includes store closures (except grocery and drug stores) again, as of Monday. Essential services (dry cleaning, laundromats) will be open, I think reduced hours. Government liquor stores are essential of course. They'll be open. Here, as there - as soon as the schools reopened - the numbers went back up. Way up. Quickly. Anyone who can read a graph (except Government people who prize their popularity) could see that. And stupid people here too. Police caught 30 of them partying in one hotel room. I don't know what the fine is. Hope it's huge. Kids 2 or over need masks here. Masks are required in common areas, halls etc. of my apt. building. Nobody wears one but me.

    Maybe the magic of (now legal) marijuana keeps them safe. I don't really think so.
     
  13. TeacherBelgium

    TeacherBelgium Well-Known Member

    It frustrates me that kids are not required to wear masks here.
    The kids themselves will likely not become terribly ill from the virus (fortunately) but they unconsciously- and not because of their fault - kill people older than them.
    My cousin of 8 years old (fortunately didn't see him recently) contracted covid and gave it to his 71 year old grandmother and to her mother (96 years old) and his parents have symptoms too.
    We want schools closed here and we want tele lessons to take place.
    Unfortunately, we have a horrible minister of education. He was first the minister of animal well-being.
    Then Pamela Anderson wrote him an angry letter.
    Then he became minister of education.
    He is a horrible minister all together.
    He ignores the advice from virologists.

    Belgium is doing very poorly, sadly.
    For such a small country we had over 17000 deaths last time I checked.
    We get 5000 vaccines just before New Year. Laughable. They call it '' a symbolic delivery ''.

    The crisis here has been handled very incompetently.
    We have a government currently that no one chose for.
    The winning party was put aside because no one wanted to form a government with them in it.
    So now a few parties took part in a coalition that is quite unsuccessful. They contradict each other, are very incompetent etc.

    Our previous minister of health care burnt all masks during the first wave. She was terrified to tell people that she burnt masks (gave order to) and so no one had masks here. We were instructed to make our own masks with coffee brewing filters. We had to wait months for masks to be delivered. That caused a terrible amount of deaths that she is directly responsible for.
    A few days ago she insisted that she did everything she could and she refuses to apologize.

    Belgium is a joke when it comes to handling the pandemic.
    I have lost my trust in our government long ago.

    Either they lie to our faces or they contradict each other.

    Ministers are caught being present at sex parties here and then those same ministers tell everyone to abide by the rules.

    They told us that we can expect to return to normal life next year December.

    My school where I'm following the postgraduate in fiscality and tax mandates that exams are taken presentially. There is a browser that allows students to take proctored exams (respondus lockdown browser) but they don't allow us to do so. Now we need to take our exams in class. Can't imagine that being very safe either. Over 200 students enrolled for this programme. 200 people in a few classrooms. That's going to give contaminations.

    *Shrugs *
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2020
  14. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Good luck, Vincent. I hope the best for you - and your family. That is not a good thing that your school is doing. 17,000 deaths in a country of 11.4 million is indeed very bad.
    Here in Canada we have had 14, 154 deaths; there are 37.59 million of us - over 3 times the number of Belgians. The most deaths are in two heavily-populated provinces, Quebec and Ontario (where I live).

    Quebec - Population 8,575,779, deaths 7,671
    Ontario - Population 14,733,119 deaths 4,112

    So, Ontario has about 1/3 the death rate of Quebec. Ontario acted quicker and stricter. That was very plain early on. Now we have to be strict again - our reward for easing up. The schools - elementary schools are not online. Kids go every day. Bad, I say. High schools are closed right now - mostly online otherwise. Students attend classes very few hours. My son (teacher) does a lot of video lectures from home etc. He's been on the Net since 1993. He knows what he's doing. (He should - he's a Tech teacher!) Schools closed today for Christmas - we don't know when they'll be going back, yet.
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2020
  15. TeacherBelgium

    TeacherBelgium Well-Known Member

    Update:
    Found a picture of the qualification you get after completing this mini mba.
    No university mentioned.
    It's awarded by the GMCA association.
    Screenshot_20201220_122700.jpg
     
  16. nomaduser

    nomaduser Active Member

  17. TeacherBelgium

    TeacherBelgium Well-Known Member

    Why lolz? :)
     
  18. innen_oda

    innen_oda Active Member

    Well we certainly wouldn't want that. I can see why a person would be hesitant about such a foolish endeavour.

    So, about that ENEB degree . . .
     
  19. TeacherBelgium

    TeacherBelgium Well-Known Member

    That eneb degree is certified by a real university.
    This one is just a certificate from a student club.
     
  20. eriehiker

    eriehiker Active Member

    This is an interesting situation. Would it be better to have a certificate from a small unknown college in the U.S. or a student-organization certificate from Western University, ranked #287 in the world? We passed the deadline for the University of Toronto version of this certificate. But wouldn't it be better to have a certificate from a student organization at the University of Toronto/Rotman than a community college in the U.S.? The certificate posted above does list McMaster as the chapter home.

    There are some difficulties here, not the least of which is the twice-weekly commitment for several months. That alone will most likely put me out of the running on this one, but this might be a nice value situation.
     
    innen_oda likes this.

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