Finally receiving my degree

It has been a long time coming, I completed the requirements for my Bachelor's degree in Training and Development in 2013, but I decided to start directly to a double degree in trimester 3 in 2013, the university added that unit to the current degree extending the qualification, holding back my graduation until 2014.

I didn't even bother flying over to New South Wales for the graduation ceremony, instead opting to receive the certificate in the mail and saving my money for a European trip.

It is with some irony that I am in Prague on paid long service leave at the time the certificate arrived. I found out via email from my father, when I return, I will scan the certificate into my computer for employment purposes and my mother can have the certificate.

The genesis can be traced back to early 2005 when I was asked to submit an application to an American company, having worked for the Americans previously, I knew they valued qualifications. I frantically rang around seeking to gain a business qualification at any level to put in my CV.

I ended up gaining recognition of prior learning for the Certificate III in Business based on evidence produced as my time as the operations manager of a tourism business. This was really a process and not training so i didn't feel like I had achieved anything.

As I already had all the presentations, pricing structures, schedules and planning on my computer, it was a relatively easy process to produce evidence of both knowledge and application in the workplace. After all, it was all my own work and easy to verify.

However, I still felt I did not earn the qualification and enrolled in the Certificate IV in Frontline Management at the Challenger Institute of Technology Leadership Centre in 2005. That was really the beginning of the institutional learning process as I worked on an extension to the Certificate IV in Business. 

I later undertook Business Management before tackling a series of Diploma of Business and Business Management. In the Australian system, a diploma is equivalent to the first year of university studies, essentially a alternate way to receive university credits at a proportion of the cost; the skills and knowledge are equal.

So starting back in 2005, it has been a longer and arguably more difficult route; I have been fully employed during that time. I never needed to take three years off work to complete an undergraduate degree. 

With the qualification fully paid for by the time the certificate is issued, there was no hangover debt to pay off. I will complete my second undergraduate degree in Organisational Leadership towards the end of 2015 from the University of New England Business School.

While it is not a Harvard, Stanford or Wharton business degree, course material was sourced from diverse institutions including Oxford University in the United Kingdom and other internationally recognised institutions as well as numerous Australian facility ensuring an Asia/Pacific focus.

So now it is time to start negotiating with institutions for credit and advanced standing towards the Master's degree, in an uncapped business environment, they are willing to deal, all of a sudden, I have leverage.