Specialist Certificate in Leadership

This unique qualification is a leadership development open program, comprised of a targeted suite of specific leadership and management capability-building subjects. The program design is highly flexible, allowing participants considerable autonomy in following their development needs.

The program is designed to offer life-long learning opportunities for professionals seeking to extend their business, managerial and leadership skills and knowledge. Subjects are offered intensively in an executive education or intervention-based (‘gap’) format to a diverse cohort of professionals ranging from early-career to senior leaders. The learning experience includes lectures, case studies, group discussions, simulations, and critically, participant-designed workplace interventions.

Learning goal

Graduates of this program will develop individual capacity for leadership and enhanced ability to maximise the effectiveness of their teams, departments or organisations. Participants will acquire new or improve their existing knowledge, skills and capabilities to drive increased performance.

Learning objectives to achieve this goal

On successful completion of this certificate students will be able to:

• Identify key issues related to leadership style(s) and team and overall business performance
• Explain how leadership impacts on organisational performance, both positively and adversely
• Understand their role and personal ability to effect practice of leadership within their teams, departments and broader organisations
• Demonstrate the ability to coach and support others to maximise their workplace performance.

The Specialist Certificate in Leadership consists of four 6.25 point subjects comprising two core and two elective subjects:

Two core subjects selected from:

Two elective subjects selected from:

1. In order to be considered for entry, applicants must have completed:

• either – an undergraduate degree or equivalent qualification, and three years of documented relevant professional experience, or – ten years of documented relevant professional experience which demonstrates the capacity to undertake the course successfully.

Meeting these requirements does not guarantee selection.

2. In ranking and/or assessing applications, the Selection Committee will consider:

• prior academic qualification and performance; and/or

• the professional experience.

3. The Selection Committee may seek further information to clarify any aspect of an application in accordance with the Academic Board rules on the use of selection instruments

4. Applicants are required to satisfy the university’s English language requirements for graduate courses. For those applicants seeking to meet these requirements by one of the standard tests approved by the Academic Board, performance band 6.5 is required.

The Specialist Certificate in Leadership welcomes applications from students with disabilities. It is University and degree policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student’s participation in the degree.

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this course are articulated in the Course Overview, Objectives and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

The University is dedicated to providing support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

Students can articulate into the Master of Enterprise.

The Melbourne Graduate

The University of Melbourne educational experience prepares well-rounded graduates who are academically outstanding, practically grounded and socially responsible. Melbourne's graduates are distinguished by their broad outlook and openness to different perspectives.

This program will enable students to achieve the University of Melbourne graduate attributes in the following ways:

Academic excellence:

• Faculty facilitating the courses will provide research-led course material with an applied focus.
• The intense learning environment, small class sizes, and industry-relevant content will stimulate a high level of discussion and debate among participants.
• The sharing of industry experience between participants will create a rich learning environment.

Knowledgeable across disciplines:

• The interdisciplinary content of the specialist certificate will improve participants’ ability to examine critically, synthesise and evaluate knowledge across a broad range of disciplines.
• The interdisciplinary subject matter will improve the flexibility of participants and enhance their ability to lead service organisations effectively.

Attuned to cultural diversity:

• The materials within many of the subjects will draw on international examples and focus on doing business in other countries which will increase the cultural sensitivity of participants.

Leaders in communities:

• The focus on leadership skills in organisations will improve the self-awareness of participants which will enhance their capabilities as mentors and communicators within their organisations and the broader community.

On successful completion of this program, students should have enhanced their skills in:

• Critically evaluating evidence in support of an argument or proposition.

• Problem solving in relation to leading teams and organisations in competitive business environments (both for and not-for-profit) through the application of appropriate relevant theories, principles and frameworks.

• Communicating ideas on organisational development to colleagues and the wider community

• Synthesizing ideas, theories and data when developing solutions to problems related to management and leadership.

• Understanding good governance and business ethics.

• Retrieving relevant information from a variety of sources and applying it in their workplaces.

• Teamwork through collaborative exercises and in-class discussion.