As an admission requirement for a Higher Business Diploma (HWD) with a VSK certificate, prospective students must have completed basic commercial vocational training, i.e. an apprenticeship. Or a degree from a commercial school at commercial diploma level. Persons with other basic vocational training and several years of commercial work experience are also admitted.

The following skills can be acquired through a Higher Business Diploma course with a VSK certificate:

• understand, analyze and interpret business contexts and derive corresponding action requirements and options for their management level
• Ability to obtain and evaluate information on current economic and economic policy issues and to make decisions based on this information
• provide meaningful figures and financial data for individual projects/products or areas for the team or group they manage
• understand, analyze and interpret the figures and derive corresponding needs and options for action from them
• successfully apply modern systems and instruments of personnel management in their daily management work in the team/group by incorporating the company's existing guidelines and resources or (co-)designing them themselves
• design processes and changes within their management area in line with tasks, individuals, teams/groups, resources and the company
• Ability to include or plan the most important marketing instruments in the sales program
• Ability to lead meetings and discussions/negotiations competently and master the targeted use of communication tools

The training course leading to the Higher Business Diploma HWD/VSK qualifies you as a Certified Business Specialist VSK (Association of Swiss Management Schools).

If you have successfully completed all seven modules, you are entitled to use this title.

A Higher Business Diploma HWD offers graduates:

• Generalist training - practice-oriented and wide-ranging
• get a grip on business management instruments
• Acquire competent basic commercial knowledge
• become a communicative and management-oriented business specialist
• Gain organizational flair and project talent
• sought-after employee in the Swiss economy
• Gain initial specialization in a specialist area or function
• work independently on specialized tasks as an expert
• Create optimal conditions for management training to become a professional or expert

All schools that offer the Advanced Business Diploma HWD / VSK are guided by the specifications and regulations of the Association of Swiss Management Schools (VSK), which clearly define the content. The 2018 regulations specify 7 modules that are examined and to which the individual schools align their course content. These modules are

• Business administration (incl. economics and law)
• Accounting
• Personnel management (incl. law)
• Process management
• Project management
• Marketing
• Communication, sales and negotiation techniques, rhetoric

Some schools also offer other modules, such as leadership, accounting or German law, but these are optional subjects that are not included in the degree.