Business administration is one of those jobs people fall into and then do for twenty years. It is also one of the few office roles where a regulated qualification still changes what you are paid, because the work is measurable and employers can tell the difference between someone who has been shown and someone who has been trained.
What the Diploma is
The Level 3 Diploma for Business Administrators is a full Level 3 qualification, awarded by NCFE, carrying the Ofqual number 603/5359/4. It is a Diploma rather than an Award or a Certificate, which means it is substantial: 240 guided learning hours and 405 total qualification time.
It is the qualification that underpins the business administrator standard, so it covers the ground an employer expects of someone running the administration of a department rather than assisting with it.
What it covers
The administration of a modern business, from communication and record keeping through to managing projects and dealing with stakeholders. In practice that means the things that go wrong in an office when nobody owns them: information that cannot be found, decisions nobody recorded, projects with no plan, and people who were never told.
Who it is for
Administrators who want the job title to match the work they already do, people moving into administration from retail or hospitality, and anyone whose employer has started asking for evidence of competence rather than experience. There are no formal entry requirements, though the qualification assumes reading and writing at around Level 2. The minimum age is 16.
If your reading and writing are not there yet, that is worth fixing first rather than struggling through. Functional Skills qualifications exist for exactly that, and they sit below this one on the same framework.
How it is assessed
Portfolio, marked by our assessors and quality assured by NCFE, with no written examination. Evidence comes from work you produce, which suits people already doing the job because the job supplies the material.
Time and fee
Studied entirely online at your own pace with no fixed deadlines. The fee is 995 pounds. At 240 guided learning hours it is a longer commitment than an Award, and the course page carries the current figures alongside the entry requirements.
What you study, unit by unit
Seven mandatory units carry the 240 guided learning hours. Their weight is uneven on purpose: the two largest are legislation and finance, and IT, because those are the areas where an administrator's mistakes cost a business money.
Unit 1: organisational planning and processes (40 hours)
Taking responsibility for tasks from start to finish, managing priorities and time against real deadlines, managing the expectations of colleagues at every level, reviewing processes and proposing improvements, and looking after office resources and suppliers. It also covers the practical organisation of meetings, events and logistics, from booking a venue to distributing the minutes and chasing the actions.
Unit 2: legislation, structure and finance (45 hours)
What the organisation is for and how it is structured, the law, regulations and policies that apply to it and to your role, the principles of managing change, and the principles of business finance. This is the unit that lets an administrator work with the finance function rather than around it.
Unit 3: communication in a business environment (20 hours)
Choosing the right channel and the right register for a message, producing documents that are accurate and fit for their purpose, and handling communication with stakeholders inside and outside the organisation. Short, because much of it is practised in every other unit.