Business Management (Campus Geel and Turnhout)

Accountancy and Taxation

Course content
Efficient accounting is the first requirement of a sound economic, financial and fiscal business policy. We find it essential to teach the skills necessary for the job and therefore train our students to become professionally competent people.

Of course, as a bookkeeper - tax specialist, you must have more than one string to your bow. We make sure that you obtain the competencies to do general and analytic accounting, corporate accounting, corporate legislation and accounting legislation. We will see to it that you will find your way in financial analysis, cost accounting, budgeting and auditing. Finally, we will help you master several software packages and tax law to be ready for the challenges of corporate life.

We will offer several challenges. The bookkeeper - tax specialist has indeed an important function, as he will be advising the manager. That is why one has to be able to find the strengths and weaknesses of the internal organisation, detect possible problems and make suggestions in order to steer the company organisationally, economically and financially.

Work placement
A three-months’ work placement will offer an excellent opportunity to gain experience and prove that you can indeed put the acquired knowledge into practice.

Job opportunities
Once you have graduated, you can start working as an accounting and finance expert in small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large companies.
 
We find that graduates often work as cost-accountants, assistant accountants, head-bookkeepers, project leaders, budget managers, assistants to the financial manager and controllers. They may be in charge of stock administration or of sales administration.
Bookkeeping, accountant and company auditor offices also hire them.

You can also set up as a self-employed tax counsellor. You have acquired a sufficient theoretical and practical expertise to do so, not only in the field of personal and corporate income tax, VAT and customs law, but also of excise duties and succession and registration duties.

Finance and Insurance

Course content
The option ‘Finance and Insurance’ trains students to become a competent professional.  After all, it combines a thorough general training in economics, law and finances with a detailed study of insurance.

The Finance curriculum you will help you gain a broad understanding of various aspects, both economic and financial: monetary and capital markets (such as the Stock Exchange), credits, investment techniques, financial agencies, national and international financial transactions.

During the study programme of Insurance you become acquainted with various aspects of the world of insurance: industrial accident insurance, material damage insurance, liability insurance, personal insurance and claim settlement. A work placement will provide a taste of the necessary practice.
It goes without saying that we also offer you a thorough accounting and fiscal training. Language and communicative skills in Dutch, French and English form a major aspect of your training as well.

Work placement
A three-months’ work placement will offer an excellent opportunity to gain experience and prove that you can indeed put the acquired knowledge into practice.

Job opportunities
The combined training of Finance and Insurance offers you a wide range of future career possibilities on a constantly expanding job market.

You can apply for a job with banks and insurance companies, exchange agencies and listed companies. In these sectors you can work as an office manager, office employee, commercial agent or account manager. You will also be able to assist as a risk assessor, a file administrator, investment consultant or credit analyst.

In companies you may become a credit control co-ordinator, a treasurer, risk manager or exchange risk manager. You can also opt for an independent career as a professional insurance broker.

Legal Practice

Course content
In our ‘Legal Practice’ option we concentrate on various legal branches such as civil, commercial and labour law, as well as on criminal law, administrativeand fiscal law and insurance law. You learn to understand and analyse legal texts correctly.

Practical examples show how to solve legal problems so that you will soon be capable of drawing up, controlling and following up legal files. We also train you to draw up various contracts and give legal advice.

Legal Practicestudies take you further than purely legal training, though. A comprehensive economic basis with accountancy, computer applications and company organisation provide ample opportunity to expand competences. Languages are an important part of the programme as well.

Work placement
In the third year a work placement of twelve weeks will complete your training in order to get acquainted with your future working environment.

Job opportunities
After having received a thorough basic training that is linked to a specialist legal approach, you will have little trouble finding a job. You can get to work in the traditional legal sectors such as law firms, bailiff's and notary's offices, court registries, legal and fiscal advice offices and the Criminal Investigation Department. Employment can also be found in legal departments or personnel departments of businesses.

A degree in legal practice studies guarantees employment opportunities with social secretariats, with trade unions and employers’ organisations, health insurance funds and committees for the self-employed. Banks, insurance and leasing companies and real estate brokers will welcome legal staff members.

Finally, we must not forget the public sector. In various ministries, provincial governments and local authorities (e.g. the Ombudsman Bureau) there is room for people with a thorough legal knowledge.

Logistics Management

Course content
Managers of the 21st century attach ever more importance to logistics. They like to control the entire goods and information flow and organise it efficiently, from the moment raw materials are being supplied until the customer receives the finished product. That is why managers try to transform different activities such as purchase, production, stock, transfer, transport and distribution into one single integrated chain.  The result: lower costs and a better customer service.

In Logistics Management, we train you to be a staff member capable of analysing and solving logistic and transport problems. That is why we teach you the different aspects of transport, forwarding and logistics through a wide range of practical subjects. Special attention is paid to the extensive national and international legislation for transport of goods, its organisation and the intermediaries involved. You will get to know everything about V.A.T., Customs and Excise legislation, goods and transport insurance, techniques of international trade and integral logistics.

As the international dimension of logistics management is self-evident, we offer you plenty of opportunities to improve your Dutch, French, English and German or Spanish communication skills.

Guest speakers, company visits and a work placement in the final year offer a practical touch to a theoretical training. Contacts with the business world allow you to get to know your future field of working.

Work placement
A three-months’ work placement will offer an excellent opportunity to gain experience and prove that you can indeed put the acquired knowledge into practice.

Job opportunities
Every day in a dynamic and flexible team you make a number of decisions in a variety of situations: you help reduce waiting lists at a hospital, solve traffic queues, prepare transport and border documents, plan the production of MP3 players or send containers filled with DVDs from Antwerp to Seattle.

As a logistics manager you have the skills to co-ordinate the flow of goods on a national and international scale, not only from harbours and airports, but also from SMEs and large corporations in your neighbourhood. You are able to ensure that clients of companies, distribution centres and transporters gladly want to pay for the logistics service you provide. It is important to keep in mind that logistics is and remains people work where personal contact is key.

Moreover, the business world has pointed out to officials that there is a lack of logistics managers.

Marketing

Course content
Marketing is essential in modern corporate life.  Both multinationals and small SMEs have to grasp current marketing theories and apply them actively. We consider a thorough theoretical knowledge very important and we make it no secret. On the other hand we make sure that you are indeed able to apply the acquired knowledge in the real world. Indeed, a large part of your training will consist of exploring realistic and practical situations and in doing active market research for companies: the real thing!

We want you to become experts at the different company marketing policies. That is why such courses as purchasing policies and sales management will be on the curriculum, as well as cost accounting and budgeting, and market research, marketing mix strategies, advertising and direct marketing. We teach you computer applications which will be indispensable in your future job as a marketer.

In the third year you will explore more areas, e.g. business-to-business marketing, services marketing and international marketing. We also give special attention to strategic management, which scrutinizes the strategic policies of a company.
During the entire training, languages are an essential part of the schedule.  For today's marketers, languages are an absolute necessity if they’d like to operate in an international environment. At the end of the curriculum you will be able to manage adequately in Dutch, English, French and German.

We also consider practical experience of paramount importance. That’s why you will be  invited to attend seminars and company visits in Belgium and abroad, during which managers and commercial executives elucidate marketing issues.

Work Placement
In the third year you will get the opportunity to go on a three-month work placement in a company inland or abroad. To find out more about work placement abroad, consult our International partners.

Job Opportunities
The option Marketing prepares students for jobs as commercial executives. You can obtain jobs in the services sector, with banks and insurance companies, in the processing industry and in wholesale distribution. Some graduates are working in national companies, while others choose an international career. Inside companies our graduates take up posts as purchasers and sales representatives. Some get to work in marketing consultant or advertising agencies. Many marketing graduates find interesting jobs in the commercial departments of companies, in the commercial director's office, the budgeting department, etc.