After earning your bachelor’s degree in business, you may be thinking about moving on to earn your master’s degree; however, there is an alternative to this that you should give strong consideration to. There are many programs that are offered by colleges throughout the country that enable you to earn a certificate in a narrow area of business. This type of certificate program has many advantages over the traditional master’s degree program. The following are three of these advantages.

Certificates take less time to earn

A master’s degree in business administration can take a student up to two years to earn, and this is if you are dedicating full time to earning your postgraduate degree. This may be more time than you want to spend in school. A graduate certificate will take half this time, and many of these programs are available in an online format, so you can learn at your own pace and fit the classes into your personal schedule.

These programs allow you to tailor your education to your needs

After earning a degree in business, you may have an idea of what you want to do for a career. If you have this choice down to a specific area of business or finance, then you can earn a certificate in this specialty area. The classes that you will take will apply to the type of work you want to do, and not general principles that may or may not help you in the work place.

They help to get your career started quickly

Often, students are eager to finish school and get started with a career. A certificate program does this in two ways. The first is that you are learning material that applies specifically to the field you want to work in. The second way is that it reduces the time you need to learn the specifics of a particular job once your career starts. An MBA is general, and it still takes a lot of time to learn specific job skills

There are many graduate programs that are offered in schools across the country that offer the advantages listed above when earning a certificate versus earning an MBA. One example is an actuary certificate program. Once you have earned this certificate, you will be ready for a career in the insurance industry.