Elms College Offers New Business-focused Degree-completion Options

CHICOPEE — Elms College Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership announced new bachelor’s degree completion programs that will prepare students for success in the worlds of entrepreneurship, accounting, and management and marketing.

Business has long been an exciting career option. Startups were beginning to resurge in the U.S. in 2015, but the need for more entrepreneurs is vital to economic growth and job creation, according to a Kaufman Foundation survey. A 2014 Forbes survey found that 90{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of startups fail, and 42{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} said the reason they fail is a lack of market need for their products. Elms is looking to make business-degree completion as accessible as possible by building programs that work for adult learners.

Elms College currently offers a healthcare management degree-completion program in partnership with Holyoke Community College (HCC), with classes held online and at HCC. With the addition of the three new programs, Elms provides four business-focused bachelor’s degree completion options designed to be flexible for adult learners, with classes held online and face-to-face on the Elms campus and local community-college campuses. They are:

• Bachelor of arts degree completion in entrepreneurship and management, which provides students with hands-on, real-world experience in creating new ventures and presenting new ideas to the market;

• Bachelor of arts degree completion in accounting, which teaches students how to identify and analyze diverse opportunities while using 21st-century skills and technology in accounting;

• Bachelor of arts degree completion in management and marketing, which gives students a strong foundation in business management and marketing principles; and

• Bachelor of arts degree completion in healthcare management, which prepares students for leadership roles in healthcare administration, a fast-growing field.

Eligible students for Elms degree-completion programs will have earned an associate’s degree from an accredited college, with a minimum GPA of 2.25. These programs, like Elms’ other business programs, are accredited by IACBE, the International Assembly of Collegiate Business Education.

Classes in these programs will begin in the fall 2017 semester. For complete program-delivery options, e-mail cel@elms.edu or visit www.elms.edu/cel.