Business Administration
Comprehensive business education — marketing, finance, HR, operations, and communication — with real-world application and a work placement.
Core topics
Modules & lessons
Work top to bottom — every lesson has an objective, curated resources, a hands-on lab, and a self-check.
Module 1 · Business Foundations Beginner 4 lessons ›
How Businesses Create Value
🎯 Explain the business model of any company in one page.A business creates value by solving a problem customers will pay for, then captures some of that value as profit. The core functions — marketing finds customers, operations delivers, finance tracks money, HR powers people. Map any company as: inputs → transformation → outputs → customers → revenue.
✍️ Self-check question
What is the difference between value creation and value capture?
Canadian Business Environment
🎯 Describe economic sectors, business structures, and Ontario context.Canadian business structures: sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation (limited liability, separate tax entity), and co-operative. Ontario's economy runs on services (~77%), with small businesses employing most private-sector workers. Administrators must know basic compliance: business registration, HST, and WSIB.
✍️ Self-check question
Why do most growing businesses incorporate?
Business Communication that Gets Read
🎯 Write clear professional emails, memos, and reports.Professional writing is brief, structured, and action-oriented: purpose in the first line, details in short paragraphs, a clear ask at the end. Match channel to message — email for records, chat for quick questions, meetings for decisions. Tone errors cost more than grammar errors.
✍️ Self-check question
What belongs in the first sentence of a business email?
Business Math & Excel Essentials
🎯 Use percentages, ratios, and spreadsheets for daily decisions.Daily admin math: markup vs margin, percentage change, simple interest, and unit costs. In Excel: SUM/AVERAGE/COUNT, IF logic, sorting/filtering, and clean tables. Administrators who can turn raw data into a one-screen summary become indispensable fast.
✍️ Self-check question
A $10 cost item sells at $15 — what are the markup and the margin?
Module 2 · Marketing, Finance & HR Intermediate 4 lessons ›
Marketing Fundamentals: 4Ps to Customer Value
🎯 Build a simple marketing plan.Marketing = understanding customer needs and meeting them profitably. The 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) organize decisions; segmentation–targeting–positioning focuses them. Modern plans add a digital layer: search, social, email, and reviews — measured with conversion rates, not vanity likes.
✍️ Self-check question
Why segment a market instead of marketing to everyone?
Finance for Non-Financial Managers
🎯 Read a P&L and budget a small department.Every admin touches money: budgets, purchase orders, invoices. Learn the P&L structure (revenue → COGS → gross profit → expenses → operating income), the difference between cash and profit, and how variance reports (budget vs actual) drive monthly decisions.
✍️ Self-check question
A profitable company runs out of cash — explain how.
Human Resources: Hire to Retire
🎯 Outline the employee lifecycle and Ontario HR basics.The HR lifecycle: job description → posting → structured interviews → offer → onboarding → performance management → offboarding. Ontario anchors: ESA minimums, Human Rights Code (no discriminatory questions), OHSA safety duties, and AODA accessibility. Admins often coordinate interviews, records, and onboarding checklists.
✍️ Self-check question
Name two questions you may NOT ask in an Ontario interview.
Operations & Quality Basics
🎯 Map a process and find one improvement.Operations turns inputs into outputs reliably. Map the process (steps, owners, handoffs), find the bottleneck, and improve with PDCA (Plan–Do–Check–Act). Simple tools — checklists, standard work, 5S — prevent most errors. Quality is a system, not inspection at the end.
✍️ Self-check question
What does the 'Check' step in PDCA actually check?
Module 3 · Professional Practice & Placement Prep Professional 4 lessons ›
Project Coordination
🎯 Run a small project with a charter, plan, and status updates.Small projects succeed on clarity: a one-page charter (goal, scope, owner, deadline), a task list with owners and dates, and weekly status (done/next/blocked). Tools are secondary — Trello, Planner, or Excel all work if the rhythm is consistent. Admins who run smooth projects get promoted into coordination roles.
✍️ Self-check question
What three things belong in every status update?
Customer Service & Conflict
🎯 Handle complaints professionally in person and in writing.Service recovery formula: listen fully → acknowledge → apologize sincerely → act within authority → follow up. Written complaints need extra care — no defensiveness, short sentences, clear next step. A well-handled complaint creates more loyalty than no problem at all.
✍️ Self-check question
Why follow up after resolving a complaint?
Digital Workplace Tools
🎯 Use Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace at admin level.Admins live in shared drives, calendars, and video meetings. Core skills: permission hygiene (who can see what), version control, shared calendars and booking pages, professional video-meeting etiquette, and basic automation (rules, templates, quick parts).
✍️ Self-check question
What is the risk of 'Anyone with the link can edit'?
Placement Success & Career Launch
🎯 Convert the 120-hour placement into a job offer.Placement is a 6-week interview: arrive early, ask for feedback weekly, document your wins, and solve one visible problem. Update your resume with placement achievements (numbers, not duties). Most college admin hires come from placement networks — treat every supervisor as a reference.
✍️ Self-check question
List three placement behaviours that lead to offers.
Program quiz
Career outcomes
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