Business Management

Overview

Choose Bellingham Technical College’s two-year Associate in Applied Science-Transfer degree in Business Management as a pathway to BTC’s Bachelor of Applied Science – Operations Management degree or choose the two-year Associate in Applied Science degree and go right to work after graduation.

Graduates are prepared for entry-level positions in industry, government, and non-profit organizations. Students will acquire a background in basic business including accounting, business law, marketing, and economics as well as practical supervisory skills.

In addition to the required core classes, students choose from one of three specialty tracks (Social Media Marketing, Human Resources Specialist, and Operations Management) each comprising three specialty classes.

Program Outcomes

Students will learn core business practices, principles, and theories allowing them to make immediate and significant contributions in the workplace. Students will gain the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to coordinate human, financial and material resources to achieve organizational objectives while adhering to government guidelines.

Upon completing the Business Management AAS or AAS-T degree, students will be able to:

Effectively communicate in the context of business and in a business environment;
Use data to engage in effective decision-making;
Apply ethical and legal principles to the business environment;
Demonstrate mastery of the core functional areas of business including accounting, economics/finance, marketing, management, and planning & strategy.

Students completing the Social Media Marketing track will also be able to:

Describe SMART social media goals to achieve successful online campaigns;
Evaluate a company’s current situation, isolate social media issues and provide solutions by identifying appropriate social media marketing portals to influence consumer and improve the company’s reputation;
Create a social media marketing plan and track progress in achieving goals with a variety of measurement tools, services, and metrics;
Use analytics to monitor and evaluate progress.

Students completing the Human Resources Specialist track will also be able to:

Describe the unique roles of Human Resources professionals and their impact on the organization;
Explain the primary processes of workforce planning, job analysis and design, training and development, compensation and benefits, and performance appraisal;
Identify the key federal and Washington state employment laws, regulations, and terminology;
Develop a written strategic compensation plan.

Students completing the Operations Management track will also be able to:

Analyze individual and group behavior, and understand the implications of organizational behavior on the process of management;
Demonstrate an optimized approach to planning, executing, monitoring and controlling projects;
Describe and discuss the mechanics of operating a small business (pricing, human relations, purchasing, inventory, financial controls;
Analyze and apply strategies to maintain quality and stability within operations.

Program start

Students may begin this program in any quarter.

Entry Requirements

These requirements are for the AAS-T degree and are higher than those for the AAS degree. Please see AAS Entry Page for AAS requirements.

BTC College Level Math score of 75 or MATH 099 with a C or better;
ACCUPLACER Reading Comprehension score of 85 or RDG 085 with a B or better;
ACCUPLACER Sentence Skills score of 86 or ENGL 092 with a B or better or AENGL 100 with a C or better.