How can you make a professional career change into management?
Excelia Business School's continuing education is aimed at professionals who are working or changing career, whether they are executives, in a management function or running a business, who want to move into management roles. Entry requires at least five years of significant professional experience: a Bac+3 opens it directly, while a Bac+2, DUT, BTS or equivalent opens it through the validation of professional achievements (VAP) in management or project management.
The entry route, and the level of qualification required
Excelia Business School's Executive Education Centre designs its pathways for profiles already engaged in professional life and looking for new skills in management and business administration:
- people running a business
- executives
- people in a management function
- people working in consultancy
A Bac+3 is accepted whatever your original field of study. VAP, meanwhile, recognises what you have already learnt in the field, in addition to the skills management requires.
One question remains that nobody else can answer for you: is your experience sufficient, in your specific situation? A VAP application is examined individually, and an adviser can assess its strength with you before you apply. You can book an appointment with an adviser to discuss it, with no obligation.
A format compatible with a professional activity
Excelia Business School's Executive Education Centre offers short, certificate and degree courses, designed for employees and people who want to develop their skills while strengthening their employability, such as the Bac+5-level degree pathway in management. Designed by experts for professionals aiming for new career opportunities, these pathways are also personalised, with a learning rhythm designed for your current job, so that a career change does not mean putting your job on hold.
The teaching starts directly from your own business, rather than from a generalist theoretical programme, so that what you learn applies almost immediately to what you experience at work. The practical scenarios and the end-of-pathway strategic project confront you with a real issue from your organisation and lead to operational solutions. This project is supervised by an academic tutor.
There remains the question of funding, which is a legitimate concern when you are already in a job. Several ways of funding professional training exist for this type of pathway, and the Executive Education Centre looks at them case by case, according to your status and your project.
The value of the degree in the labour market
Within the Executive Education Centre, a degree pathway at this level allows you to obtain a degree that leads to the Grade de Master and is listed on France's National Register of Professional Certifications (RNCP) at level 7, recognised in France and internationally. This recognition is the same as that sought through an initial pathway, obtained via a route compatible with your job rather than through a second-tier qualification reserved for working professionals.
The Grade de Master means that the degree is recognised at Bac+5 level. The recognitions our degrees combine are detailed on this page; remember the essential point: the Grade de Master and RNCP listing do not replace one another, they add up.
Excelia Business School also holds quadruple accreditation (EQUIS, AACSB, AMBA and EFMD Master): fewer than 1% of business schools worldwide hold all four of these accreditations, a useful benchmark when you need to justify your choice of programme to an employer or a VAP panel.