You can join hundreds who have made a difference in their careers with these high-impact, accelerated Professional Development Certificate programs. From foundation to mid-level skills and knowledge, the critical learning outcomes from these industry-focused Certificates support your career and professional development. You can expect:
- Convenient online courses
- Assurance of an accredited college
- Full college credit for courses
- Guarantee that your education is relevant to the industry
Professional Development Certificates
Specific Professional Development Certificates are comprehensive programs of four to seven courses designed for employees from entry-level to 3-5 years of experience in the banking and finance industry.
Accounting Basics Certificate
Intermediate Accounting Certificate
Forensic Accounting Certificate
Accounting BASICS Certificate |
Return to the top |
Certificate Description
This Certificate is designed to prepare learners with the basics of Accounting. Students will take five introductory courses in this program to earn a certificate while simultaneously completing the prerequisites required in the Intermediate Accounting Certificate program.
Certificate Curriculum
15 Credits
This five-course certificate includes the following three-credit courses:
- Fundamentals of Banking or Fundamentals of Financial Services
- Business Mathematics
- Accounting I
- Accounting II
- Fundamentals of Financial Statement Analysis
Core Competencies
After completing this certificate program, the student will be able to:
- Know how the banking industry functions as a financial intermediary.
- Relate functions of bank departments and employees to overall bank operations and performance.
- Know how the financial services industry developed.
- Understand basic accounting terminology and the process by which transactions are analyzed and transformed into financial statements.
- Understand management and accounting issues associated with assets, liabilities, and capital.
- Understand the accounting measurement of assets and their associated effects on a company´s earnings.
- Prepare budgets to assist management in decision-making.
- Apply math fundamentals to business applications, including profit calculations, payroll, banking, interest calculations, insurance, taxes and more.
- Develop a game plan for analyzing any company´s balance sheet, income statement, cash flow, and reconciliation of retained earnings statements.
- Determine whether a company´s current performance trends are indicative of its future financial viability.
Target Audience
The Accounting Basics Certificate is designed for individuals with entry-level industry experience and little or no undergraduate level course work in accounting and finance. This certificate will appeal to those who are just entering the field as well as those who want to shift their career path into accounting and finance within the financial services industry.
Intermediate Accounting Certificate |
Return to the top |
Certificate Description
This certificate is designed to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to identify industry trends and evaluate the impact of those trends at a corporate and industry level. It is also intended to enhance accounting proficiencies and provide students with the ability to develop corporate level financial documents, as well as the ability to critically analyze and synthesize information found in complex accounting and financial reports. Ethical decision-making, as it relates to financial reporting, is an integral theme of this program. This certificate qualifies for Financial Aid.
Certificate Curriculum
21 Credits
This seven-course certificate includes the following three-credit courses:
- Intermediate Accounting I*
- Intermediate Accounting II
- Managerial/Cost Accounting
- Federal and State Individual Income Taxes or Business Ethics
- Statistics
- Fundamentals of Financial Statement Analysis
- Corporate Finance
Core Competencies
After completing this certificate program, the student will be able to:
- Analyze and evaluate data and apply knowledge of lending standards to make prudent and ethical lending decisions within a consumer-oriented framework.
- Develop and implement a marketing plan.
- Establish a marketing budget.
- Understand the instruments of capital markets.
- Calculate and apply commonly used ratios that test financial condition, operating performance and cash flow sufficiency.
- Utilize and understand the limitations of industry ratios as gauges of a company´s financial condition and performance.
- Apply more sophisticated management tools necessary to survive in today´s competitive commercial lending environment.
- Analyze a company´s balance sheet, income statement, cash flow, and reconciliation of retained earnings statements.
- Know the concepts of negotiable instruments as well as the rights and duties of each party to a negotiable instrument.
Target Audience
The Intermediate Accounting Certificate was designed for individuals with 3-5 years or experience in the financial services industry and/or undergraduate-level course work in accounting. This certificate will appeal to those who want to shift their career path into accounting within the financial services industry as well as those who are currently employed in the industry and require advanced skills to move into higher-level management positions.
Forensic Accounting Certificate |
Return to the top |
Certificate Description
This Forensic Accounting Certificate consists of five master’s level courses that focus on auditing, fraud detection, asset recovery, and loss prevention. Students combine accounting theory with practical case studies as they develop the forensic "detective" skills required to search out non-compliance and suspect transactions and to identify their origin in organizational settings.
Forensic Accounting is a rapidly expanding and focused area that has gained much attention with the advent of Sarbanes Oxley, the US Sentencing Guidelines, and the Digital Copyright Laws. Increasingly, businesses are employing forensic accounting professional to detect, safeguard, and police businesses to ensure compliance with regulatory agencies and to reduce the chance of becoming victims of white collar crime. Forensic accountants apply detailed forensic analysis strategies as a proactive approach to fraud prevention and detection processes. A bachelor’s degree is required for admission to Forensic Accounting courses.